In his Footsteps
by Lunafix
Summary: Sasuke came back, but Sakura left soon after, what happens when you put together a curse mark, a talking eagle, and a treaty from Sound?
1. She left and came back

**HI! I'm new at this so all of my friends are helping me figure this out. This is my first Fanfic so plz don't criticize me and no flames!**

**I would love it if you R and R, so please do... I'll change the chapters based on the comments!**

**Well now you can read and enjoy!**

* * *

**She left and came back**

It's been 5 years, I still remember leaving. It had broken my heart, but I had to, that was the mission I gave myself. Today is the same day I left. Sasuke had just come back from killing Orochimaru, the bastard himself, but he's still trying to find his dumbass brother, Itachi. Although when he said he spared Kabuto I got an uneasy feeling, turns out that he was playing with Orochimaru's body and was his body for now. I know all this since he tracked me 3 years ago on my journey and let's just say I'm not really with the results, sure I killed him and sealed his soul into a scroll, but I paid for it with my own genuine curse mark. Don't know which one though, but I can control it unlike Sasuke's mark.

Huh….. Well, I guess I should be going now…..

_**BANG!**_

Whoa, what the hell was that?

(Sasuke's POV)

Naruto is so annoying sometimes; he doesn't even realize what day it is! Hello? Today is March 15th, the day Sakura left us! Not that I care or anything… ok maybe I do….. I know, the guy with a heart of ice has a soft spot for a certain pink kunoichi. Hn… it's been 5 years, and she still hasn't come back. Tsunade-sama knows what she's doing but she won't tell either of us. _**GOD DAMN IT! **_I miss her so much, I think I'm in love with her … no that can't be it. I still remember that last note she gave us.

_**(Flashback)**_

_This mission is SO boring, I guess that's because it's so simple. Kill a serial killer, nothing to big, well I guess that's because of the lack of available ninjas right now, whatever. Sakura had made us stop to set up camp, che… she's the captain, wonderful, now I can't call her the weak girl who depends on others. I went to bed right after I set my tent up… Sakura had first shift anyways. Two hours later, I went out for the next shift… and what was there was a guy lying dead next to a note. I picked up the note and my body froze, "no fricking way…" I muttered. I read it again and again, it wasn't possible! She couldn't… no she would never! I was in denial, it unhinged me completely!(Here's what it said)_

_Dear Sasuke and Naruto,_

_I'm so sorry for doing this, but I'm leaving… and I don't want you to even try and bring me back. Tsunade-sama knows about it, but I will still be reported as a missing-nin. Oh, don't ask her anything! Basically I want to find out about my past… you guys wouldn't understand it that much, lets just say my name isn't Sakura Haruno, but truthfully Ibaraki __Hoshiko__. That's all I know, and I can't stand it anymore! I need to find out about my past! Look, I love you guys more than anything, so this is my order/request, go back to Konoha and forget about me, get a girlfriend, do whatever you want! Just go back and don't try to find me. The latter is the only real order here, so go back home, and remember I love u guys more than family._

_I'll miss you guys,_

_Sakura Haruno_

_P.S. the guy who's lying dead next to this note is the serial killer, your welcome! _

"_NARUTO!" I screamed holding back the tears that were threatening to pour over… never thought I'd do that since I was 8, tears started streaming. My cherry blossom left, hm.. what's with the 'my' she isn't my property, just a teammate right? Or something more to me?_

_**(End of Flashback)**_

"Oye, teme, you ok or something?" the dobe spoke.

"Hn."

"I suppose your thinking about her again," Naruto said while he faced the ground.

"Yeah, it's been 5 years, and still nothing."

"Why don't we go back to the training grounds, spar, and maybe relive some memories with her?"

"Hn." I walked in that direction.

"You could wait up you know," Naruto screamed at me.

"Dobe."

"Teme."

_**Bang!**_

What was that? Eh, whatever, probably an explosive tag or something.

"Gah! Damn people!" Naruto screeched.

* * *

**Alright! that's the first chapter!**

**Tell me if you like it or not! Oh, and if your my friend reading this, don't wait until monday to tell me... just email me!**


	2. Sakura dying and a New Rekkei Genkai?

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps II

(Sakura's POV)

Damn! I guess I can't go back home yet. "Raikugan, open," I whispered. My ocular vision had enhanced my eyes now showed a gold color, with a black star in the middle. I could do a number of things with these eyes, bend any material to my will, read minds, create clones that can bleed and heal, along with any emotions I might want in them, see chakra points, etc. I faced Hidan who glared at me; if looks could kill I would've been killed about 142 times in total, 90 from Sasuke, about 8 from Naruto on accident, about 43 from all the other Akatsuki, and the last one from Hidan. Gosh I'm hated a lot.

The battle lasted for quite some time, although I won, I had many injuries; I needed someone's chakra so I could heal myself. I created a clone and added the hate, the loneliness, and the cold I felt when I found out about my past. I connected my mind with it's, abandoning all thoughts of the happy times, and I travel to Konoha.

**(Normal POV)**

Sakura passed through trees as fast as she could, the training she used enhanced ninjustu, genjustu, and taijustu. Along with her eyes that can make her travel close to the speed of light, but it tires her out quickly. So just the fastest speed during training was used. Finally a clearing was visible, and luckily it was the training grounds team 7 used for that bell test Kakashi gave. And to her surprise she saw Naruto and Sasuke sparing and talking about her, what luck.

"Oye, teme, get it together or else you're going to get your ass handed to you big time!" Naruto said.

"Hn, like you could ever beat me." Sasuke remarked.

"Well, I might not but I know that Sakura would, if she was mad enough." Naruto commented back.

"Tch. Yeah right." Sasuke retorted. "Never get Sakura mad," Sasuke noted.

Sakura had snuck up to a tree to observe the fight more clearly, disregarding all the comments about her. After a while they were both panting, that's when she made her move.

"Oye, how are you guys?" Sakura called emotionless, she thought, "Raikugan, seal." They both froze, turned around, and the blood drained out of their faces, making then look as if they just saw a ghost. But truthfully, it's actually their teammate who came back after 5 years without any news accept the population of Akatsuki dropping to nearly zero because of a pink-haired with interchanging gold and emerald eyes women.

"Sa-Sakura-ch-chan," Naruto muttered, still staring. Sasuke just looked with wide eyes.

"SAKURA!" Naruto shouted sprinting to her. "I don't have time for this, sorry Naruto," Sakura thought. Once Naruto was close enough, he was shot into the air and was forced to the ground, creating a crater and successfully knocking him out. Sasuke just stood there gapping at her, with only one thought, "**What the fuck!**"

(Sasuke's POV)

Whoa, Sakura just knocked out Naruto with two kicks, wonder how she did that, of course the dobe just fainted afterwards though. What else did she get better at? Well the time for questions is later; she looks dead serious and cold. I wonder if that's what I looked like when I was 12 it does fit the dobe's description of me as a child. Whoa what's with Sakura's eyes, they keep on flickering form gold to emerald. O.o


	3. Sasuke helping?

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps III

(Sakura's POV)

Gah! Dang, stupid vision. Guess I'm just going to have to live with gold eyes for a few days. "Raikugan, open." And I stared at him with my eyes, gold irises. He took a breath, "Sakura, is that really you?"

"To a degree, right know it's a sort of clone, it's one of the many things I can do with my eyes. It looks like I also have a bloodlimit, my Kekkei Genkai - Raikugan, and right now I need your help." Sakura stated coldly. It's was the truth, I did need his help if I wanted to live.

"Will you come or will you wait after I die?" I remarked. That set him in motion, I could see his eyes regard me closely trying to find a shred of evidence that I was lying. Tch, if only he knew that I'm not lying and that I am indeed dying in a sense.

"Never mind, just follow me if you believe me. Or at least try and keep up." I smirked and started running in the direction of the battlefield. And of course he followed, tch, probably wondering whether I was lying dead or not.

Now that I was in the clearing again, I finally got an overview on the damage I caused. Ouch, I bet Mother Nature loathes me right now, everything in a 2 mile radius was basically crushed it rubble, eh, nice place to start another building section, whatever. I felt Sasuke's chakra behind me, I peeked at him. Apparently he didn't see the other battlefields I left fighting the other Akatsuki members; this one is truthfully a small one. I've had battlefields that stretch over 10 miles in radius, so he gapped at this small one really set me off, I started giggling.

He finally brought his attention to me and started staring and smirking at me, yeah of course that's my first time any sign of emotion emerged. After about 2 seconds, I stopped; the current mission was timed, depending on my will to live. Hurriedly, I ran to my body, the ground covered in blood from the wounds.

"I'm gonna have to use your chakra, so you best get over here so I can start healing." I stated. He made no attempt to move from his rigid pose, after awhile I turned to find him staring horror-struck at my body with the injuries. "Dumbass," I stated, "If your just gonna stand there I'm gonna die you know," glaring at him with my gold eyes. Now that I think about this is a lot of emotion coming from ice-heart emo Uchiha Sasuke.

"Hn…" and then he move. Geesh, he still doesn't talk much does he?

"Just put your hands on mine and try to keep up with the speed I'm moving at." Sakura instructed. After about 1 minute on the minor wounds and about 3 on the major ones all of the wounds were closed, the whole process took about a half hour.

"Arigatou," I said before I transferred all of my thoughts back into the body.

(Sasuke's POV)

I watched as the so called clone disappeared and all of Sakura's thoughts and emotions went back into the unconscious body before me. I was horrified about half and hour ago, see the women I loved lying there with only a faint pulse scared me. I didn't know how I was gonna live if I knew she was dead. Suddenly the women before me opened her eyes, before she whispered, "Raikugan, seal." Then she smiled and got up, "good to see you, Sasuke-kun." And that brought me home, I instantly hugged her, she froze than finally opened her arms and embraced me, after awhile I noticed that I had cried, I guess I was so glad that she was alive, and back into my life again. Then I heard a smartass comment.

"You know that if Naruto was here he would be laughing his head off and annoying you for the next 7 months right?"

I smiled, a real genuine smile, and then I chuckled, "yeah."

"Alright, it's gonna be too tiring to run the distance to Konoha, so I guess we're flying." Sakura said and smiled for once. I look at her with my newly found '_What the fuck?'_ look.

(Sakura's POV)

Wow, Sasuke has a "_What the fuck?" _look, I guess he loosened up a bit after he killed Itachi. Yeah, I know about the fight and how Itachi died, word gets around pretty quickly, that's how I was saved time and time again. After major battles I would be so wounded that I would make a clone and have someone in a nearby village carry me to the nearby hospital. And I would always be let free to track more members. I killed all of them; they deserve it for what happened to my past.

_**(Flashback)**_

_I was in the village hidden in the Sound, searching for anything on my surname, __Ibaraki. It's been about 3 years, I was recovering from my fight with Orochimaru, and surprisingly most of the people in Oto hated him for using his people for experimentation and other things for tests. So for defeating Orochimaru, the people wanted me to become their Hokage, but I declined. Instead I had an old friend around, Kuminashi; she was a trustworthy friend that would listen to my advice anytime. I let her rule and had her make a peace treaty with Konoha, under my guide she ruled for a short period under my supervision. _

_Since I had no quarrels with the sound and was Tsunade-sama's apprentice there were no objections. Everybody had trusted me whole-heartedly which I gladly thanked them for. I had spent the next few days look through Oto's records, trying to find my past, and finally I reached that file. The file was under a small stack, it was a manila folder with the word Ibaraki on the tab. I read it thoroughly, to put it short, it's was a clan murdered the same way Sasuke's was. _

_The man who murdered it was Sasori of the Sand, who was my cousin, he killed everyone but me because I was a baby and he pitied me, so he traveled to Konoha and left me there. Sasori had killed everyone just because that was his coronation into the Akatsuki. I vowed to eliminate that group in the shortest amount of time needed. I had already trained constantly, so now I had an extra purpose to train for. Everyday I would come home either limping or half-walking, all the people on Oto had helped me train, sometimes having to help me home. It was hard, only because I had a __Kekkei Genkai__ that I wanted to master in a short period, which I successfully did. _

_They said it was the least they could do for eliminating Orochimaru, and I thanked them nonetheless. After awhile I left, they gave me luck, the whole village, and I set off knowing that now I had 2 homes, not just one. I fought all the Akatsuki members that were left, I left Itachi because I knew Sasuke would be pissed if I killed him and frankly he needs the revenge more than me. I heard that Naruto defeated Pein and that Sasuke had attacked Deidara… and won. I wanted to go home after defeating Konan, so I decided that day I left…_

_**(End of Flashback)**_

I smirked, of course he would be curious, and that remark was probably really weird. Well better show him before he starts questioning my sanity. I took off my pink jacket quickly and cut two slips in the back then put it on again, quickly. I had control over that stupid curse mark so that was good, I felt the pain before I could react, after a few seconds it subsided and I looked behind me. I found the little 'gift' the sannin had given me; it caused pain but never reached limits where I couldn't control it.

It was amazing at first to find that I was still conscious 5 minutes after he bit me, sure it hurt but no pain, no gain right? Behind be grew 2 wings, basically making me look like a angel, I never liked it very much so I use it in emergencies, like in battles and finding shelter quickly before something happens. And of course I'd get the pleasure of seeing Sasuke's eye's boggling out of his head, it's quite funny.

"Hn… im probably not gonna carry you, I know I'll call my friend!" I smiled with pleasure. It's been a while since I had an update from him anyways, so I whistled a 4-note tune and sure enough I saw the shape of an eagle coming my way. I retrieved a black bag from under a rock, and came back to the original spot, Sasuke regarded the bag closely.


	4. Lucky!

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps IV

**(Normal POV)**

"How's it going, Lucky?" Sakura replied with, of course a smile slinging the bag over her shoulder.

"Very good, how can I help this time, I sure don't need to fly you this time," Lucky remarked with politeness noting the wings attached to my back.

"Well you can tell I need you to grow full-size anyways, I need you to carry a friend." I stated turning my head to Sasuke.

"Alright then, I still owe you big time for everything you did for me, seriously you're a really good owner." The eagle spoke with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah." I remarked while performing hand seals, after a few moments I slammed it onto Lucky and he grew about 12 times bigger, enough for Sasuke to climb on and not be able to crush Lucky.

"Get on," I commanded before taking off. We landed next to Naruto on the training ground, who's muttering about Hinata-chan and ramen. I immediately had my curse mark diminish, causing pain again. Lucky also had minimized into his regular eagle size, perched on my shoulder quite nicely.

"Did they hook up or something?" I just had to ask a slight chuckle formed, this was just too much.

"Duh."

I rolled my eyes and started healing the bump I caused when my clone knock him out – oops! Now I'm going to feel really guilty. After a few minutes he woke up and again tackled me.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried out tackling me. After a few minutes he let go, I could see a few tears, "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," Sakura laughed, "Oh, before I forget." She started going through her bag and brought out black and purple hilt and orange and red hilt kunai, "the black one is for Sasuke, and the orange one is for Naruto," Sakura stated while holding them out. The black kunai gleaming blue color, while the orange one gleamed yellow, next to each other the kunai both looked deadly, well they both were to a degree…

"Only use them for emergencies, nothing else. If it comes to worse throw in at your opponent, even if they catch it, they'll have a poison attack their systems leaving them dead in seconds." Sakura seriously explained. Sasuke and Naruto both gulped. "Don't worry though, you guys won't be affected quite like that, instead if you get cut by the blade the poison acts like an antidote and heals wounds immediately. I took blood samples from my clothes when we were 12, it's a little invention of mine, be glad I took the time to make you guys one, along with everyone else who's my friend in Konoha. I have one too, although it's only used when I depleted a gigantic amount of chakra in my battles.

Oh, don't play with them, they can seriously kill and like turn you to ash if you cut another person." Sakura stated while pulling a pink kunai from her pouch. The pink looked a bit faded but it resembled the cherry blossom color nevertheless, the hilt was a tint of blue.

"Oh, Lucky? If you want you can stay in Konoha, it's a great village and I'll make sure your let outside the village from time to time, heck you might as well be my partner if I go on any missions in the future, think about alright?" Sakura asked facing the eagle.

"I'd be insulted if you think I'd decline. Of course I would stay with you; I owe you my life anyways. Beside I know Konoha treats birds well and going with you would relieve me of my stiff body once in a while. I'll go look for your old house now," The eagle stated and flew off.

After the last comment Sakura made to them, Sasuke and Naruto both froze, they were shocked but took the weapons, putting them in a safe spot. And after Sakura had that tiny chat with Lucky, she turned to face them, and then she collapsed.

(Sasuke's POV)

Whoa what just happened? _She just fell, smartass! _Um… who are you?_ Again, dumbass, I'm your inner you! _Ok… back to the problem, and go away. _Fine…_

That was weird… good thing I caught her in time…anyways Sakura is on the ground now… Wait what? Sakura's on the ground? Hn… at least she's conscious, probably had a lot of chakra drained out of her from her fight with that Akatsuki member. At least she's fine now.

"Ugh, I feel like crap…" Sakura muttered quietly. Too bad I heard it; she's changed though, no longer the weak little girl back when Team 7 originally started.

"You look like you would want to sleep for a few days." And she just stared, "You know that's more words you would say in a year."

"Things change, everyone changed…" _Especially you, and what's up with the bird, and why the heck is the bird talking?_

"Yeah, well can't rest yet. I'm still a missing ninja, until I talk to the Godaime. And I really don't feel like repeating myself." Sakura said while standing up.

"Hey Naruto? Can you get Kakashi and wait at the foot of the Hokage tower? I think it would be appropriate if I only informed the Hokage and Team 7 all at once. And I'm guessing Sasuke here has a few questions for me regarding everything he witnessed in the 2 hours you've been unconscious. Oh, sorry for knocking you out before, but I'll explain that later." Sakura said while rubbing the back of her head with her hand.

"No problem," Naruto shouted while running off. Sakura directed her attention to Sasuke after they couldn't see Naruto anymore. "I know I'm right and you probably have a half-hour for Q and A so you best get started."


	5. Have any Questions?

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps V

(Sasuke's POV)

I wonder how she figured it out, she knows me to well. I smirked, "hn."

(Normal POV)

"How'd you get wings?" Sasuke asked. Sakura tensed, you could see it.

"Normally I wouldn't say, but see that you went through the same thing relatively, if I lied you would see through it immediately. Let's put is this way, your choice to let Kabuto live made him 'accidently' revive Orochimaru which then they tracked me. We fought, and Orochimaru bit my neck causing me to earn a curse mark, although I didn't faint like you the pain was excruciating, and the next thing I know I find a dead Orochimaru/Kabuto laying dead next to me. And I looked to the direction of the mist village to find feathers blocking my vision, that's when I realize that I have wings. And unlike you, I have complete control over my mark, that's why I use it in emergencies, and an hour ago was a form of an emergency." Sakura explained quite quickly. You could tell she didn't like to talk about it very much.

"Tch," Sasuke commented, his knuckles turned white while he was clenching them.

"Alright, next question?" Sakura asked hurriedly.

"Where the hell have you been the last 5 years?" Sasuke almost screamed at her. That made Sakura jump out of her skin.

"Didn't think you would care…" That was made with awkward silence.

"Tell me…" Sasuke stated venomously.

"Alright, alright, sheesh… It still doesn't seem that you'd care for _anything_… but I guess you right, people do change," Sakura whispered. Sasuke felt a sort of pain when he heard those words. Louder she answered, "I basically traveled everywhere in the ninja world, I ended up in the Sound. I basically stayed there for a few years, everyone respected me for defeating Orochimaru, and the communities wanted to make me Hokage. I declined and had one of my best friends run it instead while I became a temporary advisor for her. When I was in Oto's library, I found the file on my clan, and the same thing happened to me as it did to you. I didn't even know that I already killed the man who caused it.

I decided to train until I defeated all remaining Akatsuki members. I trained with the shinobi, who helped me with my goal. I also worked on the poisonous kunai; the colors remind me of whom I was to give it to. For example, yours was black because of you physical raven black hair and your onyx eyes, the hilt is purple as a reminder of your summoning creature, which is a purple snake. And like me, I have pink hair, so having a pink kunai was natural; the hilt was a reminder of my relation with the slugs. They said it was payment for destroying that monster, I guess most of the people didn't appreciate being 'experiments' for a madman.

I was the most respected person in the village, and sometimes I would tire myself out so much that I need help getting home. After some time, I left Oto to put my plan into action, basically what you would call revenge. I also wanted Oto and Konoha to make a treaty since nothing posed as a threat to both nations, so after killing a few members I went back to Sound. I offered the treaty to them and the Hokage agree whole-heartedly. After having a treaty made and Kuminashi signed it I sent out, but in the direction of the Sand, I wanted to see Temari again. I also gave them kunai, Temari's – Tan with a black hilt, Gaara's – Red with a tan hilt, and Kankuro's – Purple with a black hilt.

After about a month with them I started back home. I planed it out carefully, I was planning to come home today but I guess I really didn't calculate Hidan into the equation. That delayed me for quite some time. I wanted to surprise both of you but I guess with my life on the line I really didn't think of my introduction at the moment. So now I have… (counting remain Akatsuki members) no one to kill anymore…" And with that Sakura stopped walking, and then she started jumping up and down like a 5 year old.

"Yes! I can stay in Konoha and not have to worry about some crazy gang trying to kill me, yes! Yes! Yes…" and was basically as hyper as she could be until she had to stop, her wounds were bothering her a little.

"Well I guess I'll have to tell you the answers to your remaining questions later, we're coming to the tower.


	6. Meeting Godaime again

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps VI

Sure enough there stood Kakashi with Naruto, his face stuck into the newest edition of Icha Icha Paradise. Sakura took out a kunai and threw it at Kakashi, the kunai landed so close to Kakashi that it grazed the side of the book. It was pure silver, gleaming blue.

"That's my gift to you sensei, use it in emergencies and don't cut anyone with it unless they have a death wish. If you're wounded, cut yourself with it, it heals only you, no one else." Sakura spoke. Kakashi retrieved the weapon, examined it, and hide it safely in his pouch. Then he closed his book, walked up to Sakura and embraced her in a huge hug.

"Glad to have you back, and remember, I'm not your sensei anymore. So don't call me that." Kakashi sternly said. They all knew he was joking though.

"Guys, it's good to know that I'm back and I'm staying in Konoha," the pink-haired kunoichi said. And with that the four of them headed to the Godaime's office.

At the top, they were all at the front of the door, Sakura would be the one to knock and greet the Hokage first. But, instead she stuck out her hand to the wall, supporting herself and coughed up a little blood.

"Damn, internal bleeding. This isn't going to end well; I'll have to go to the hospital right after this." Sakura muttered while just staring at her blood.

"Well better get this over with," She said while standing up. Her former teammates were eyeing her closely, "internal bleeding," she curtly stated back at them. Then they all have worry etched into there faces, "I'm not a little girl anymore, I can take care of myself. Besides I'm going to head over to the hospital after this."

You could see a little relieve in their eyes, Sakura then picked the time to knock on the door as she usually did, 5 years ago.

"ENTER!" Tsunade yelled, you could tell she was steaming mad. Sakura opened revealing team 7, and they all saw Tsunade with a whole bunch of paperwork. Her hand was flying at 200 miles per hour, trying to contain the typhoon of paperwork she had to fill out.

"Shishou, you really need to slow down. Why don't you just make 5 clones so you get it done faster? Besides when was the last time you had your sake usually you'd be drunk right now right?" Sakura asked. Tsunade froze then chuckled, "That's a great idea! Thanks…" she looked up, "Sakura…." Yeah, this is the part where the pen drops and Tsunade staring at something she probably doesn't believe. It's probably the best choice since she hasn't seen her apprentice in 5 years, the person who was a second daughter to her… In two second, Sakura felled embraced in her Shishou's arms, she could feel the tears that brimmed from her arms.

"It's been a long time hasn't it?" Sakura chuckled. Tsunade then pulled back and slapped her._**SLAP!**_"That was for leaving without telling me, and you could've sent a letter or something. I thought you were dead or something." Tsunade said while looking at Sakura, "You've grown so much, I don't care what the council says, and you're not being executed."

"I expected that… And I'm way too stubborn to die" Sakura stated stubbornly. Shizune then entered the room, once she looked up to the 4 ninjas currently occupying the room she saw Sakura. All of the papers fell, along with Tonton; Shizune stood there in shock, the girl that she treated like a little sister, standing right in front of her for the first time in 5 years. Tonton had already scrambled to Sakura, who picked him up and hugged him. She then walked over to Shizune and hugged her. "Glad to see you too, nee-san," she whispered into Shizune's ear.

"Back to the matter at hand, Tsunade-shishou, Shizune… I have a few gifts for both of you." Sakura had grinned at both of them. She pulled out two kunai, both beautifully crafted, one was grass green, the hilt of both yellow and blue, the other was black, the hilt had a touch of both pink and blue. Sakura handed the green kunai to Tsunade and the black one to Shizune. "Ugh, can one of you explain what you can do with it? I really don't like repeating myself," Sakura whined, addressing the 3 men behind her.

"I'll do it!" Naruto yelled, calming down he stated, "The kunai works as a poison and healing antidote, Sakura had analyzed everyone's blood from her clothes and created a poison deadly enough to kill someone in a few seconds. So if Teme here had cut Kakashi, Kakashi would be dead in less than a minute." Everyone sweat-dropped. Naruto continues, "But it works as a medicine because the poison was made from our own blood so it kills the germs and makes healing ourselves faster. That's why Sakura told use to use it only in emergencies." Sakura stared at Naruto; _he's changed so much_; 5 years ago he wouldn't even be saying all the details, leaving a report to Kakashi while he ran to get ramen. The thought made her grin.

"Alright then," they both said and hide the special kunai with care. "So care to tell us anything else?"

"Tch, only about three things.


	7. Her news

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps VII

1.) the whole Akatsuki being dead 2.) Orochimaru came back alive with Kabuto's help and me killing him again but causing me to have a curse mark, and 3.) To get a treaty with Oto since they need train, and financial help, I'll explain that in a few minutes." Sakura started to cough and spit out blood, "Oh and three don't so big things are that 1.) I have a Kekkei Genkai called Raikugan, 2.) I found out about my past, turns out I was to become a sound ninja, and 3.) I'm gonna stay in Konoha from now on." And she spit out more blood… _Damn internal bleeding, better not move too much…_

Sakura made a move to sit down, the Hokage complied. "Oh yeah, I forgot something! Naruto pass me the bag please!" Naruto went over to the bag and tried to lift it, and it didn't move, he pumped chakra to his arms.

"What's in that thing, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked handing her the bag

"Seeing as though I already pulled 5 kunai from it, what do you think," Sakura shot back. While Naruto was thinking about it Sakura had plunged her hand into the bottom of the container, pulling out a small red velvet bag with strings pulled. She went to the desk and poured out the contents. Out came 7 rings, the same rings that an Akatsuki member would wear anywhere. There came silence, "You really did fight them all didn't you?"

"Only because they were S-ranked criminals that were the reason of my clan's death, yeah…" Sakura responded coldly. "I also heard that Naruto had defeated Pein, and Sasuke defeated both Deidara and… his brother." She dare not say Itachi's name out loud, it brought back pained memories to some people. Facing the two men the same age as her, she gave that cute smile she would use when she was little, "Congratulations guys!" turning her head back to her shishou she said, "I took their rings, so we could find out why they had them and what there were used for, Shikamaru should be pleased I found him something to do if he's still a lazy jackass who's dating my best friend." Sakura gave a grin, and everyone started laughing. After the laughter had subsided, Tsunade had collected the rings and stored them someplace safe (IDK make something up!).

"Now that _crap_ is over with, do you mind telling us where you've been for the past 5 years?" Tsunade demanded, with a tone of deadliness.

"Not at all, although it might take a long time," Sakura said. And Lucky just so happened to come through the window when she said that, "Hey Sakura-sama, found your house, it's actually quite cozy and very cute. I'm guessing you're the Godaime of the hidden Leaf, it's a pleasure to meet you Lady Fifth." The eagle spoke facing Sakura then Tsunade. He then flew and landed on Sakura's shoulder, "you have impeccable timing you know that right?" Sakura asked her voice dripped with sarcasm. The eagle just shrugged, everyone but Sasuke just stared. "DID THAT BIRD JUST TALK?" everybody but Sakura and Sasuke shouted. "This 'bird' as you call me is known as an eagle, and yes I did. Sakura had saved me once and preformed a jutsu that allowed me to talk, we became well acquainted with each other and our bond grew stronger during fights and diplomatic problems regarding my homeland the village of the Sound," Lucky explained, quite annoyed that he was indeed called a 'bird' he felt disgusted.

"Anyways, why don't we just start at the beginning? I'm sure Lucky would_ love _to hear my life before travelling everywhere." Sakura said trying to ease the tension and questioning looks at Lucky and congratulatory faces directed at her. All heads turned her way, even Lucky's, she was right, he did want to know her past.

"A few years before Sasuke left Konoha; my father was killed in a mission. A few weeks later my mother was bedridden, one day I was called next to her bed, and she told me… she told me that she wasn't my real mother. The couple had been walking at night when they found me, I was wrapped in a charred blanket, a card with the name Ibaraki no Hoshiko and my birthday, March 28th, written on it. Which means that I was living a lie my whole life, I didn't want to believe it, but my mother showed me the card. After she died, I didn't want to show any of you the pain I felt, so I stayed my cheerful self.

Whenever I got sad, I knew that some of that pain… that pain I felt when I found out… it shown, that's why I never liked crying. That pain tears me apart inside, to have it all bottled up was painful but I did it quite successfully. Apparently nobody noticed which suited me just fine, but I only spoke to one person about it, and that was you Tsunade-sama. I told you I might leave at any given time, just not yet." Tsunade nodded quickly while the others stood there shocked, Sasuke was actually guilty, he treated her like trash even though he didn't know the pain she held deep down; his eyes shown a mixture of retreat, shock and guiltiness.

"After Sasuke left, Naruto put me back together and Tsunade started training me, I grew stronger everyday, despite some people who for some reason wanted me dead. Although I succeeded in missions I wasn't truly content, I still had that curiosity, that pain I felt when I found out that I lost not one but two families. After Sasuke came back, I was happy for a time, so I decided to stay so team 7 could go on missions, just like old times. That last mission was the day I decided I would leave, to find out about my past. I know I would probably cause a lot of pain, especially to everyone who cared for me, that's why I wrote that last note.

I just finished killing that serial killer when I wrote that note. I'm glad you guys can actually follow orders," she smirked, "Although I probably knew for a fact that Naruto would scream his head off and try and find me. That's why I hid in my summer cottage in the middle of the cherry blossom fields; it was perfect for reminiscing memories for me. And I can see that not all of you have moved on, but at least you guys still remember me." She was obviously addressing Sasuke. "After you guys finally went back home, I set out on my little quest, although it was interrupted by this little fellow right here!" She giggled while shaking Lucky, causing him to open his wings a little to get a balancing point on Sakura's shoulder. "I found him fighting with a bunch of Sound ninja, I guess they were hunting.

He surprised me when he defended himself pretty well, until they pulled a nasty trick on him, so I intervened, cutting the ninjas so much they fell from blood loss. It was then I realized that I had obtained a Kekkei Genkai, Raikugan, during this battle, Tch, Lucky here thought I was fighting them so I could eat him, so he was shocked to see me actually healing his wings and legs. After I healed the bird I healed the ninja and quickly escaped with the eagle flying above me, we landed in the same spot and I put two Justus on him, one that could make him talk and the other to make him grow in size so I could fly with him. Befriending him was the best, I found out that he was a loyal bird from Oto and that he betrayed his master, the ninja was sent to either capture or kill him. I named him Lucky since he wouldn't go by the name, Kaede, and because he was really lucky that I was there to save him.

So, I first headed toward Sand, only because I really didn't feel like entering Sound anytime soon. I got permission from Gaara to search through the files on the residents, he allowed for two reasons, 1.) I helped save his and Kankuro's life, and 2.) he knew I wasn't incompetent with files. After searching through about 10,000 folders I finished searching through files. I took my leave and moved on to the next village. I took the time to also look at scrolls containing Justus that I might use, it was very helpful and I trained everyday. After some time, Orochimaru appeared on my way to the mist village.


	8. Everything that happened!

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps VIII

At first I thought it was a genjustu, but when it didn't release I knew something must have happened. I vaguely remember that Sasuke said he killed Orochimaru, but heard no word of Kabuto, so I thought it was his doing. In my case, I was right. Orochimaru was able to transfer his soul into Kabuto's body without him noticing until it was too late. During the battle, I had Lucky hidden at the time, Orochimaru had bitten me, and now, like Sasuke I now possess a curse mark."

She paused from the story to take off the ruined jacket and her shirt, revealing only her bra and two marks, marking where the wings would emerge from. After they all saw the mark, Sakura had quickly put on her apparel and continued with a cold voice, "Although I didn't faint like Sasuke did in the Forest of Death, I was battered with the excruciating pain internally. I had refused my body to slide into unconsciousness; to me it would show that I was helpless, that I couldn't do anything to stop the man turned into a monster, the man that used to be one of your dearest friends, Shishou. The next few minutes had pasted through a blur, the only thing I saw was feathers, blood and black.

After all that I saw Orochimaru's body laying there, bloody and not making any move to get up. I made sure to seal his soul into a scroll, before I faded into unconsciousness, I made sure to give Lucky the scroll and give it to me in a few days." Sakura then took off her pouch and searched through it, pulling out a scroll, it was completely purple; she set it on her desk. "I had him grow and let him fly me to the nearest village, unfortunately was the Sound, although they were kind to me I only had a sense of security with Lucky. We became closer than family.

After I was healed, the villagers had asked me to become Hokage." This comment was met with open mouths and wide eyes, but they motioned for her to continue. "I declined…" Two simple words and the breaths that were held were released. "I declined… but I didn't say I wouldn't help. I had befriended a girl when I was very young, and I knew she was still alive.

I appointed her Hokage instead with me working as her advisor. Although she was just a shinobi, she was patient and learned quickly, I helped her with the paperwork once I was able to physically function. Being her advisor had reminded me of the times with Shizune and Tsunade, so being advisor I got a really good idea. I offered the idea of a treaty to Kuminashi, who agreed, I was supposed to come and offer it immediately. I was the most trusted person in both Konoha and Oto now, but they let me do it on my own accord, they knew I shouldn't be rushed.

Besides Oto is recovering nonetheless, the treaty would help the recovery quicker that's all. And since most of the people had hated Orochimaru for his inhuman experiments, and they were his test subjects, it was a wise option. Oto was running pretty smoothly, and that's when my life took a complete turn. I was already familiar with my Kekkei Genkai, so reading my family history was hard to endure. I'll talk about my history later, that isn't truly important to everyone here.

After reading the file I traveled so hard to find, I like Sasuke, wanted revenge. I wanted revenge on the entire Akatsuki organization, because they were the reason that my life was turned upside down. Although if it didn't I would've never met all of my friends right now, that's the only good part of this. After training so hard with the resident ninjas, we would usually walk off the training ground supporting each other; we always thanked each other to no end. The whole village had helped me while I helped them with my skills and experience; it was a win-win.

The night I left was a sad one, I had said no good-byes, it would only sound like a death wish. So I set out, member after member I struck them all down. After a few years I came back to the village to find it having a better status. I was greeted and respected by many, Lucky and I had survived much, and it was good to get a break. That's when I started my extensive research on making the kunai; I already made mine and killed quite a few Akatsuki members with it. Out of pure act of selflessness, I made one for each person that was dear to me.

After making all of the kunais, and of course the colors as well I set off to Suna quickly. It was almost the anniversary of the day I left. I wanted to set things right the day everything had fallen apart again, so I gave the Sabaku siblings there kunai explaining to them what it did. They all put it in there holsters, typical. I decided to say for a holiday, I really didn't get out much the first time I came to Suna; I spent a little time healing the villagers' wounds before I officially left. I had asked Gaara not to notify you both times I was there; I wanted to surprise you all, which I guess I successfully did."

Every smiled, even Sasuke although his smile was a small one, then the office roared with laughter once again, only Sakura ended up coughing more blood, "Damn it!" she said. "I'll finish the story before I head anywhere guys." Sakura answered quickly, not wanting to cause worry. "Anyways, it was about 5 days when I left, and started heading here, but we (regarding Lucky and herself) took an easy pace. Oh, and found a group of Earth ninjas that went to spy on Konoha, they were toast once they caught sight of me; I took down most of them within a 5 minute time spam. There were at least 20 of them." Tsunade nodded, "that would explain the pile of bodies we found in the north about 3 days ago correct?" Sakura shrugged, "I guess, they weren't prepared very well.

"Hn… Nothing really big happened until today when Hidan decided to attack me, I won as you can tell but was severely injured in multiple spots, only Sasuke saw me injured." Sasuke nodded while recalling the detailed memory. "So I basically used my Kekkei Genkai to form a body from fractured light, that's one of the many things I can do with them. I spied on Naruto and Sasuke while they were sparing, only using stamina, no chakra. I was very impressed, so after they took a break I stepped out and had to knock Naruto unconscious because he was about to trample me and I really didn't have the time.

So I sort of forced Sasuke into following me and he; in a way internally 'freaked out' which just stands at his eyes almost falling out, I guess he didn't see my other fields that I unintentionally created or my body when I had lot of bones broken." The whole room fell silent, interpreting what Sakura just said, "that means you almost died a few times doesn't it?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, but now I'm still functional and that's good. After Sasuke helped heal all the wounds I had my clone disappear. I woke up a few minutes later and showed Sasuke my wings.

I also had him catch a ride on Lucky's back. We went back to the training ground and I healed Naruto's head since a bump grew there, I guess I was really guilty. After some time I gave Naruto and Sasuke both kunai, my gift to them, and we all know what they do." Everyone gave a curt nod, "and had Naruto go search for Kakashi to meet me at the Hokage tower, while Lucky was busy searching for my house. I'm guessing I'll have to wait for it to be refurbished is that right?" Tsunade nodded, "sorry but your going to have to live with a teammate."


	9. Mission after Return

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps IX

Sakura nodded, "Since I probably won't be able to even stand in Naruto's house, and since he's dating Hinata that's a big no, and I would rather kill myself then even sleep in the same house as Kakashi since he's still a pervert, I'm guessing I'll have to get use to living with Sasuke for a while. The only thing I have to worry about is the extremely large amount of tomatoes in your kitchen and the darkness. Besides, I think he still has a bunch of questions he wants to ask me about my travels and such, I hope that's okay with you Sasuke…"

"Hn… fine," Sasuke answered, "just don't mess anything up."

"Tch, like I would ever. If the council wishes to execute or imprison me you have 1 witness and a lot of evidence. If they still don't believe it, I suggest they listen to me before I either kick there ass or unleash Orochimaru to do it. I'll be off now, have a good day!" Sakura said ending the unofficial meeting.

The rest of the day was spent talking to both Naruto and Sasuke while delivering all the rest of her kunai to her friends; she received hugs and a lot of tears, with the occasional slap. Since she was really tired of explaining both Naruto and Sasuke explained it for her. They walked around the whole village, luck for Sakura everyone wasn't on missions. She gave Sai a pale moonstone kunai, Yamato a brown one with silver hilt, Ino a yellow and blue hilted one, Shikamaru a black and green hilted one, Lee a green one, Neji a pale and brown hilted one, Tenten a white and brown hilted one, and Hinata a kunai that was tinted blue, giving it a pale color.

Once distributed, Naruto had a date with Hinata and left while Sakura was walking towards the one place that she once worked at, the hospital. The nurses were all her working companions and was met with tears and hugs, for once she had asked for a check-up, which proved her suspicion of internal bleeding but that was taken care of in a few short minutes. After all the commotion that happened that day, Sakura was ready to break down and sleep and Sasuke caught on. After Sakura yawn for the 10th time in the last 3 minutes, he bent down.

"Get on," he stated rather huskily. Sakura complied, she really didn't feel like arguing at the moment but she's going to hear it from Lucky and Sasuke is going to hear it from her. "She rested her head at the base of Sasuke's neck and let his warmth slip her into unconsciousness.

Two hours before the start of dawn Sakura woke with a start, after a few minutes she knew where she was, Uchiha territories. She found all of her equipment on a table next to her bed, neatly ordered. She put them on and headed out, she still had a mission to fulfill and she never goes back on her word. Having Lucky maximize, she jumped on and flew off.

Sasuke woke with a start, he felt Sakura's chakra disappear, _she probably left to train or something,_ but Sasuke was never the one to wait, nor did he have the patience to start now. He got up and got on his gear following the chakra he was so familiar with and ended outside the Hokage tower.

"Tsunade-sama, sorry for coming so early in the morning but I was wondering about that treaty I offered, allies with sound?" Sakura asked. "Ah… yes, I decided that I will make the agreement, and that I will send 10 ANBUs to the Sound in the company of you, since they highly respected you," Tsunade stated back. "Alright, is it alright if I choose who to bring?" Sakura questioned. "Yes, but you will notify me before you search for them to tell them of there mission, it will last 3 months, where I expect all of you to be back unharmed. The mission starts in 2 days, so decide carefully," was Tsunade's response. "Alright, I choose, _Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuga Hinata, Hyuga Neji, Jokai Tenten, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba and Rock Lee_." Sakura stated, already sure of her answer. The Godaime chuckled, "You realize that you're taking the 10 most prestigious ninjas in the village?"

The answer was obvious, "Hn… They were my friends and they probably want to spend as much time as possible, it's quite easy to figure out that they'd probably kill me if they figured out that I didn't choose them in the first place. Also they each have there own styles that can contribute easily to the recovery rate of Otogakure in a short amount of time."

"Very true," The Hokage smirked, "Alright gather your team, inform them of the mission, and afterwards report back here, I need to sign a treaty."

"Arigatou and she left on Lucky.

After waking up hostile people and scaring half of them to death, she got everyone but Sasuke. She still remembered how hostile Sasuke would become if someone woke him up, she was walking toward the Uchiha compound, with Lucky perched on her left shoulder, dozing off slightly. Suddenly a trace of chakra came from behind her; she quickly pulled out a kunai before disappearing.


	10. Meeting Spot

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps X

Sasuke had finally spotted Sakura walking back to his compound,_ tch, where the hell have you been?_ He saw her pull out a kunai and disappear, _what the fuck?_ Sakura had just appeared behind him with her kunai in front of his throat. Lucky was still half-unconscious

"Oh, it's only you, sorry." She answered sheathing her kunai. "I got a mission for you… and for a few others, ten in total including me. I'm captain, we're going the Sound for 3 months, just to help and train the shinobi there. No they are not hostile, although I don't know if you'll agree to do this mission. If not I still have another emotionless freak to do the job," they both were walking, Sakura sounded really annoyed.

"Hn…" He said monotonously.

"Great be ready in two days. At 6 we're leaving," with that she disappeared in a cloud of cherry blossoms. Reappearing at the office again, she retrieved the scroll with the treaty signed by both hokages. After reading it carefully, Sakura stored it in her pouch, and then disappeared again.

Once Sasuke got back to the compound he immediately went to get a tomato. The man would favor tomatoes over everything in a gourmet buffet, that's how much of an addict he was. Heading to bed he paused at Sakura's door, he opened it to find it empty, although he did feel her chakra almost to the window. Quickly, he closed the door silently, and little did Sakura know that it was recently opened by the other occupant in the house.

The two days passed quickly, and Sakura had spent half of her time sparing with Sasuke and Naruto and spent the rest talking with everyone in the village. Sakura soon found out that Neji had proposed to Tenten and was to have a marriage in a year, Ino and Shikamaru were going out, and Hinata's father had allowed Naruto to date Hinata after proving that he would never hurt her, unintentionally of course, there were times when he was just a klutz. Rock Lee still had a crush over her, and was still a little Gai-sensei. "_It is so good to see my youthful flower coming back to the so youthful Konoha! I will youthfully accompany you to do your youthful errands with you youthful Sakura!_" was his first comment to Sakura with a hug.

At 5 o'clock, Sakura went over her plan for everyone. Each one would teach a few shinobi a lesson over the course of 3 months. She woke early since she was thinking too much, _I guess I'm just stressed, _only sleeping about 6 hours, it was enough for Sakura to deal with. She killed time by thinking of the next three months, in between all of her lessons with the genin she would have to help out the Hokage with the paperwork. _The next three months are going to be a form of suicide, maybe even torture. _Sakura grimaced, while she was thinking she failed to see a raven-haired man walking to the gate.

"Hn…" Sasuke said in greeting, she failed to notice that to, it was until Sasuke got fed up at threw a kunai at her. Fortunately, she chose that time to come out of her thoughts and catch the kunai before it hit her shoulder.

"What the hell?" She stated, looking around until she spotted Sasuke, "YOU!" As you can see she still had that fiery temper of hers inherited from Tsunade? In a flash, the same kunai flew and cut Sasuke's cheek. After a minute, Sakura walked over and put her hand on his cheek, healing it in seconds.

"Sorry," She murmured.

"Me too," Sasuke spoke quietly.

"So why did you decide to throw a kunai at me?" Sakura questioned. She pulled her hand away from his cheek.

"Because you were busy thinking in that head of yours to greet one of your teammates. That's very rude you know," Sasuke answered.

"Well, the next few weeks are going to be torture for me, and I have to sort everything out. Between helping out the villagers and making sure no one needs medical attention I still have to help out the Hokage. So I might run around like Akamaru does when Kiba is in a rush." Sakura stated, going through her thoughts.

"Tch… why do you care?" Sasuke asked. Sure it was a little rude but he really didn't see the point of helping out another village.

Sakura turned to him with a face filled with cold, hate, disgust, and pain, it reminded Sasuke vaguely of himself when he was younger. "Because I was from Sound… so seeing the people I would've known my whole life, have a miserable one while I lived in Konoha made me feel guilty. I wanted to change that, I wanted them, and future generations to change, to have a future that I never got a chance to live. I lost my parents, I don't want somebody to have to face that to have to stand there thinking, 'I didn't do anything; I just stood there and let them die.' Instead, they could train and when that day comes, they could fight, fight and save them. To be there, to be praised. That's why I care, so I could make a difference."

Suddenly there was clapping from behind them.


	11. Sakura's Skills

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XI

Turning Sakura saw the gang, all ready, all moved by that tiny speech that was only met for Sasuke's ears.

"That's a noble purpose, Sakura-chan," Hinata spoke, not shuddering at all.

"How much of that did you guys here?" Sakura asked blushing, a little embarrassed.

"All of it, and lets just say were always going to be there for you, Sakura…" Shikamaru said, with a gleam of admiration.

"Thanks guys! Come on, we aren't going to get to Sound if were just standing here," Sakura said with a smile.

"Yeah, come on!" Naruto screamed. They all moved onto tree branches and started jumping. Sasuke was looking at Sakura from his position, and Sakura felt it.

"What is it, Sasuke?" Sakura asked. Sasuke felt hurt without the little suffix added to his name when they were little.

"What no –kun anymore?" Sasuke asked with a smirk. Sakura giggled, "I don't know, do you want me to say it?"

"Hn…" was the response. "Alright, I'll bite, what's wrong Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked. The sound filled his ears, whenever Sakura said his name, it always sounded like a melody to him, a sweet one.

"Why didn't you tell us? Why did you keep it a secret for so long?" Sasuke asked; the questions were gnawing at him. It felt so good to say them.

Sakura tensed, "Because I didn't want anybody to worry, I hide everything there wouldn't be a point if I told you anyways, and I didn't want pity that would be what I would least likely want. Even if I told you guys, it would still be train, train and train. Nothing more, nothing less. You would tell me to suck it up, and Naruto would be comforting me, just like I was the pathetic, _weak,_ little girl you both portrayed me as. Well I wasn't then and I'm not now." She spat out the word 'weak' which made Sasuke flinch.

She slowed down, "Neji, Hinata, scan the area now!" the faint Byakugan was heard from the two Hyugas. Sakura spoke, "Raikugan, open." She looked around, along with Sasuke who opened his Kekkei Genkai.

"Damn it, everybody stay still! Lucky is going down and I don't want anybody injured." She drew her katana, and disappeared.

"Hinata, how many?" Naruto asked.

"About 50 ninjas, there from the Cloud," Hinata answered, "Wait, 40… 34… 22… 14… 2… None…" Everybody froze, "SHE TOOK DOWN 50 NINJAS WITH THE HELP OF AN EAGLE?" they all screamed. Only Neji and Sasuke didn't, but they had there eyes as big as basketballs.

"So what if I did?" Sakura asked, having her emerald green eyes in a questioning manner she didn't appear to have any injuries, which made everyone drop there mouths.

"Let me get this straight… you just killed 50 ninjas, in like less than an hour…." Ino asked shakily. _Never ever get Sakura pissed, EVER!_

"Yeah so what? They were traveling in the direction of Konoha. Probably to pick a fight, they aren't really a patient village. Besides I estimate that I practically saved about 5 people's lives today," Sakura stated with a shrug, "whatever."

"Whatever? Sakura-chan, that was amazing, taking down 50 ninjas without any help at all, and so much of a scratch." Kiba shouted.

"Give some credit to Lucky, he took down like 12 of them, besides we really have to get out of here unless you want to be attacked indirectly again." With that, the team proceeded, with more caution. When it turned dark, Sakura had them stop and camp. She would take first watch, so everyone when to there tents to sleep while Sakura was poking the flames of their campfire. 10 minutes later a kunai whizzed through the air aimed directly at Sakura, she caught it with ease though. Getting up she faced the attacker, which revealed himself as a sound ninja known as Ryou. Once he saw Sakura's face and bright green eyes, Ryou recognized the savior of Sound; at once he dropped his weapons and bowed.


	12. Traveling

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XII

"My apologies, Sakura-sama," Ryou said continuing, "I thought you were an enemy, many have tried to infiltrate Sound so guard duties are assigned to a broader area, to ensure enemies do not attack."

"No need, Ryou-san. That is not very wise, having a broader area will make few points difficult to access, making death eminent if that is the enemy's wish," Sakura stated, "Come over to the fire, you probably want to warm up a little."

"Arigatou, Sakura-sama," Ryou said gratefully as he approached the flames.

"So how's Sound's recovery rate?" Sakura asked.

"Moving along quite slowly, and I'll be happy to tell you that your house is still standing, and nobody dares tear it down. I see that you also brought friends this time." Ryou regarded carefully.

"I'll be happy to inform you that the treaty has been signed, they are here to help with the recovery of sound, just as I am. We will all be staying here for 3 months, enough time to train a number of shinobi in different skills. Each of these people have different characteristics, which leads to different styles in fighting. And a few have a Kekkei Genkai just as I do," Sakura informed him.

"Ah… that is great news, I must report to the Hokage immediately… I will see you in a few days, Sakura-sama, Sayounara," Ryou spoke and disappeared.

"Sayounara," Sakura called.

"Who was that?" Sasuke asked, coming out of his tent.

"A friend that has the guidance to become someone great," Sakura answered, "he was someone who trained with me a few times."

"Hn… go to bed, I'll keep watch…" Sasuke said after a minute of silence.

"Alright, if someone attacks you, say you're with me, if they still don't believe you, show them my headband," Sakura said, taking off and giving Sasuke her headband, with a grin she said, "You know not everyone has a pink headband." With that she walked into a tent.

"Hn…" Sasuke answered, staring at the given headband Sakura had given him. He dreaded the second he would have to give it back to her. He sat down and inhaled Sakura's hair scent, warmth radiating from the cloth until it vanished. _She smells like cherries,_ he faced the tent she entered in.

The next morning, Sakura had woken up first. Poking her head through her tent, she saw Neji sleeping at the bottom of a tree. She tiptoed to him and put a blanket on him. It was an act of kindness, then she walked off the find some water and hunt. She came back with two buckets filled to the brim with water and 5 rabbits. Working quickly she set the water buckets down and started the fire again. Soon the rabbits were roasting, the innards were buried, breaking down as a nutrient. When the rabbits were cooking, Sakura went to gather some greens for healthiness, and also because of the herbs growing in bunches. When she came back, she saw some people awake, including Neji.

"Glad your awake, can you pass me my blanket now?" Sakura asked hand outstretched. You could clearly see the tiny blush Neji had formed as he handed Sakura the blanket.

"Arigatou, Sakura-san."

"No problem," Sakura answered back with a smile.

Kiba, Lee, and Shikamaru all laughed, which soon woke the rest of them. Coming out of there tents, they all sat down to eat breakfast. Kiba was still laughing.

"What's so funny guys?" Naruto asked, coming out of his tent, a very confused expression on his face.

"Oh, nothing, just Sakura here actually made Neji blush because she happened to wake up early and see him sleeping, so she put her blanket on Neji, giving him some more shut-eye," Shikamaru answered before Lee.

"It's called being a good friend, besides, he looked like he was cold," Sakura explained, "but anyways, breakfast is ready," she said, noting the meat.

"Alright!" they all said.

After dividing it equally, Sakura gave a part of her portion to Lucky and gave Akamaru some as well.

"Sakura-chan! Where did you learn to make such good youthful cooking?" Lee asked.

"Nowhere, I guess it's another innate trait," Sakura answered with a shrug, "no big deal."

"Are you kidding me, Sakura! This is amazing!" Ino commented, totally not believing that it wasn't a big deal.

"Very true Sakura, its v-very good-d-d," Hinata shuddered.

"Alright, whatever. I'm off to pack my stuff now." Sakura got up and disposed of the rabbit bones, then she went to pack her stuff.

An hour passed, Sakura had disappeared 40 minutes ago. Everyone had eaten and packed, talking about what they were going to do. Sakura finally appeared from the sky, apparently she went flying somewhere, "Sorry guys, I was taking a little trip, we'll be at Oto in a few hours because of the speed we traveled at yesterday. So let's go!"

During the travel, everyone was quiet, trying to imagine was Otogakure looked like, until Tenten broke the silence. She had caught up to Sakura and was now engaged in a conversation with her.

"Hey, Sakura? Not to be a bother or anything, but where are we gonna say?" Tenten questioned.

"Since I guess there's a lot of construction still going on, all of us are going to be staying at my place. It's actually pretty big, don't worry we'll all fit," Sakura said with a grin.

Once they all got there, some mouths were open, "Whoa." See, even Shikamaru was shocked!


	13. Meeting Kuminashi!

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XIII

"Yup, welcome to the works of Otogakure, it's not yet finished so don't go breaking anything if you're in a rush or something," Sakura said, "Come on, I want you to meet the Hokage!" The gates were opened after the guards had seen the pink-haired kunoichi pass the forest.

"Come on, right after this, I want to show you our house for the next 3 months," Sakura was giddy. They passed the local residents quite easily. Many had addressed Sakura as 'Sakura-san,' Sakura-sama,' or 'Haruno-sensei.' You could tell that everyone knew her, even the little kids came up to her and she hugged each and everyone.

"I think I might need a disguise after awhile," Sakura commented. They finally all reached the Hokage tower, which was a replica of the one in Konoha.

"Yay, finally! She climbed the stairs three at a time. Once she reached a door she knocked.

"Come in!" a voice yelled.

"Kuminashi! It's so good to see you again!" Sakura said, coming up to the Hokage.

"Sakura? So you really did come! And I see you brought friends as well." Kuminashi replied, facing the 9 ANBUs, "Konnichiha, I'm Kuminashi, but most people call me Kumi, you can address me as such when there's no officials around. I heard from Ryou that you were coming and that the Godaime signed the treaty, correct?

"Yup! It's right here!" Sakura said while pulling out the scroll.

"Ah… thanks so much Sakura, I also heard that you're all here to help the recovery of Oto from that _bastard_." She said while obviously addressing Orochimaru, they could tell she hated him, along with the rest of the village.

"Alright, let me introduce you guys. (she's pointing to people as she talks) This is Uchiha Sasuke; he was the first person to actually successfully kill Orochimaru, also killing 2 Akatsuki members. Uzumaki Naruto, his dream is to become the Hokage of Konoha; he's been my best friend since the old days. Hyuga Hinata, a shy but trustworthy girl that can beat a lot of people's asses if there's an emergency. Hyuga Neji, Hinata's cousin and an ANBU captain. Jokai Tenten, weapons specialist, engaged to Hyuga Neji and is his assistant captain.

Yamanaka Ino, my best friend and rival since I was 5, specialty is a transfer jutsu. Nara Shikamaru, the genius man on most missions, he's currently dating Yamanaka. Inuzuka Kiba, he fights with his dog, Akamaru, highly trained in taijustu, and works well with teamwork. And finally Rock Lee, the taijustu specialist, and person who has a crush on my since he first saw me when we were little. You already know me." Sakura finished, satisfied with her introduction of everybody.

"Alright then, I'll gather a few shinobi to be assigned to each person. If you'll go to your training grounds tomorrow at 11, I'll have all of the students assembled there. There's probably going to be 60 shinobi there, divide them as you wish, now I have to get back to the paperwork, if you have time, I would greatly appreciate you helping out like old times Sakura," Kumi had told them.

"Wouldn't miss it, there's a lot going on and I expect a really good story from you sometime," Sakura grinned.

"Come on guys, I still have to show you our house and my training area," Sakura yelled while running out. "Then Ino probably wants to go shopping for some clothes, and I want to get some souvenirs for Tsunade and Kakashi. So please hurry up!"

"Hn…" Sasuke said.

"Troublesome woman…" Shikamaru muttered…

"Alright Sakura-chan!" Naruto and Lee yelled back, running to her. The rest of the group followed suit, not wanting to get lost. Even Sasuke who would never want any help found himself running towards Sakura. _Her and her annoying ways…_

After a few minutes of walking and talking, they came to a red house, to the right side was a garden filled with roses, tulips, snowdrops, and carnations, the left side had a patio, painted black, while a few sunflowers decorated the fence. The backyard had consisted of a pool where a few lilies were growing. Thankfully there was no duckweed so you could go into the pool. The was a small house in the corner that revealed two doors, both had hot springs so they agreed that the left door was for the men and the right was for the girls. "The villagers knew that I would come back, maybe with some friends so they built me a huge house.

That's why it's so big, and why I have 2 hot springs," Sakura explained. They all nodded, "they estimated about 15 people, that's why there's 4 floors including the attic, but I don't use the attic so that's just open space," Sakura said. "You guys can choose any room you want, I have a _black, grass green, bright red, light blue, orange, navy blue, maroon, black and white, dark green, brown, purple, yellow, grey, neon green_ and of course pink. But nobody can take the pink one cause I already called it, besides that's where most of the stuff I have is." They all started thinking, after a few moments it was decided…

"Alright, so Ino wants the light blue, Shikamaru wants the grey room, Lee wants the grass green one, Kiba wants the black and white room, Naruto is of course orange, Hinata's would be the purple one, Neji wants the brown room, Tenten wants the dark green room, and Sasuke wants the navy blue room, right?"

"Hai!" was the reply from all of them.

"Right, so I guess we'll start at the fourth floor. Ino you get the corner room while Lee's is the door slightly to the left of us while Shikamaru's is the one slightly to the right. Skipping the next two doors, Neji's is the door to the right while Tenten's is the one to the left. Alright, I'll let you guys go explore your rooms, they each have there own bathrooms, just a heads up. Go to the living room once you're done, I'll have to show you my training grounds, it's the room filled with pictures of both of my families, and you can't miss it," with that the rest left.

"Alright, the second floor, the room in the far right corner is mine, it has a picture of a cherry blossom tree so don't go in. The room next to mine is the navy blue, if I recall it was Sasuke who wanted that one right?" He nodded and went in without another word or movement. "Ok… anyways, Kiba's is the one next to Sasuke's while Naruto's room is two doors to the left, while Hinata's is one door." I'll let you guys get acquainted, if anyone asks, I'll be out shopping for food."

"Alright, thanks Sakura-chan," Hinata said.

"No problem, Hinata, I'm just doing the best I can," Sakura said, "I'll be off, see you in a few."


	14. Sparing Practice! Finally!

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XIV

The next hour, Sakura had finally come back from the supermarket, followed by 4 other men. They set the groceries down, and left since they were there only to carry the food back. "Arigatou!" Sakura called. Slowly she packed all the food away, she knew everybody's favorite, along with a few raw vegetables, meat, and snacks. One bag was filled with only ramen. _Tch, Naruto is probably going to hug me to death for buying so much ramen._

"Well, that's it! Better see if everyone likes there rooms."

"No need, they all can't believe how it fits there personalities. Basically stating that they all love it. Most of them copied you, putting a picture on there door, even me," Sasuke interrupted making Sakura jump.

"That's good, and thanks for telling me, oh yeah, catch." Sakura answered, throwing a tomato at him, he caught it, examined it and ate it in minutes, "I was right, you are a tomato addict," she smirked.

"Hn…"

"Everybody downstairs?"

"Yeah."

"Then come on, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted, going to the living room, "I'm guessing you all like your rooms?" raising an eyebrow.

"Hell yeah!"

"Good, now come on, I want to show you my personal grounds, that's where, were supposed to meet at 11 tomorrow. And I want to get this over with before dinner," She called as she walked out the door, once she stepped 50 feet away from the house, she was bombarded with kids, fan boys, and villagers who respected her. After it quieted down they moved to the quiet section, after passing through two streets, they turned to go about 100 feet to be faced with a huge ring, trees popped up, there were targets, dummies, and everything you could want for training.

"I'm guessing the men want to stay for a little bit since there edging to go spar. I lead you ladies to go shopping for Ino's clothes and such, don't expect them to cut you a discount because you're my best friend Ino, I'll be back guys, I already got my souvenirs for Tsunade, Shizune, and Kakashi."

After that Sakura lead the girls away while hearing them comment about there bedrooms. "Alright, turn left and that's the shopping area, have fun!" Sakura told them, "Yeah, you too Sakura!" they called and waved, Sakura waved back. After a few minutes, she saw Ryou, who ran up to her.

"Where are you going, Sakura-sama?" he asked.

"To my training grounds, remember the one right next to the bread shop?" Sakura answered.

"Ah that one… It's been a long time I've been there, may I walk with you?

"Sure!" Sakura answered. They started talking about how it's been training and such until they reached the field.

"Ryou I have to go, I want to see how much my friends accomplished in the last 5 years, you know?" Sakura told him.

"Yeah, I'll see you around Sakura-sama," Ryou said while walking to his home. Sasuke saw the interaction and was peeved, "Who was that?"

"That was Ryou, he was one of the first people I met when I was in the hospital, you know from that bloody battle, why?" Sakura questioned.

"Hn... no reason…" Sasuke said.

"Hn… right…." Sakura retorted. _I bet he's jealous, but I wonder why? He doesn't like me, does he? He always calling me annoy tch!_

"Come on guys, this is getting boring real fast!" Kiba yelled.

"I'll give you boring!" Sakura retorted while launching herself at Kiba with her katana, they spared taijustu style along with Shikamaru, Lee and Neji while Naruto and Sasuke were at it. Akamaru was sparing with Lucky, having been bored just watching Kiba fight Sakura with his teammates at the moment. After a few minutes, Sakura had enough, she opened her Raikugan, and was thinking of a battle plan, most of there thoughts where about her eyes, and what they questioned it would do. After about 12 minutes, Kiba was on his knees panting when Sakura willed the roots from the trees to hold him down. Shikamaru was a bit less lazy at the moment, Lee was still shouting 'youthful' comments as Neji was staring at her intently, analyzing her chakra points.

Sakura created 2 light clones which attacked Shikamaru and Lee while she herself ran towards Neji. After identifying where Neji could be paralyzed for a few seconds she quickly attacked the area, then kicking him to the ground to have the roots bind him as well. Sakura faced Shikamaru then, only to find her clone stuck, unable to move. Sakura disappeared to be behind Shikamaru with a kunai to the throat, and then promptly kicking him down like Neji, bond him as well. Lee was last, He was fast, but not fast enough so Sakura's clone had easily moved behind him while they were both airborne; the clone had grabbed him tightly while spiraling downwards, forcing him to come into contact with the earth, the clone disappeared on impact as well, the roots had straddled him down.

"Nice fight guys," Sakura said before releasing the roots and deactivating her Raikugan. Both Naruto and Sasuke were watching in awe from when Kiba was strapped to the ground, even the girls, who just finished there shopping, saw Sakura take on Shikamaru, Neji, and Lee.

"THAT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!" everyone shouted. Sakura jumped from the loud outburst her friends just yelled out.

"I swear Konoha can hear you from here guys!" Sakura told them.

"…"

"Well considering you took on 4 guys all at once, and remained victorious, I think it's fair to say that your fight was pretty awesome," Sasuke spoke.


	15. Morning Sasuke!

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XV

"Hn…" was all Sakura said, "Hey guys get your ass over here!"

"What is it?" they all asked as they wobbled over to where Sakura was now currently sitting at.

"Oh, nothing, I just want to know if you guys need healing in anyway, like that root burn on your neck, Kiba," Sakura asked sincerely. They all grumbled and showed there limbs, which were covered with the burns from the roots.

"Just as I thought, sorry guys," Sakura said as she motioned them to sit down so she could heal them. In 10 minutes, they were all good, "Naruto, Sasuke, come on, might as well heal your wounds as well. We all have a lot to do tomorrow, and I would hate for you to be injured on the very first day. They also grumbled, but showed her their wounds.

After they were healed the whole group headed back, but you could feel that the men had a little blow to there pride, being beaten by Sakura. Dinner was whatever they felt like eating. Sakura, Lucky and Sasuke were all eating Onigiri while of course Naruto would be eating Ramen with Hinata, Shikamaru and Ino both ate Soba while Kiba had tempura for himself and Akamaru. Lee had Yakitori while Neji and Tenten had Miso soup. They all went to bed after killing some time talking.

In the morning, well the ungodly morning hours, Sakura had wakened up; she was used to waking up in the early morning. She decided to make breakfast, she tiptoe d downstairs and started cooking eggs, bacon, pancakes, and the whole breakfast theme. Nobody woke up from there slumber, she did expect that, so she delivered a fair amount of food to everyone, they didn't notice, some of them did snore. She successfully managed to give each of her friends there breakfast without making a sound, even Sasuke who would usually sense a person coming did not stir from his fitful slumber.

After delivering the trays, Sakura had went outside to enjoy her own breakfast, she sat at the little table kept on the patio for spring and summer days when she would just listen to nature run its course. She slowly ingested her meal, and that's where Sasuke found her, 30 minutes later, leaning her head back, eyes closed but senses primed, ready for anything.

"Nice to see someone else is awake at this time of morning," She said, addressing the only person within hearing distance.

"Hn… Breakfast was delicious, thank you…" He spoke softly, placing the tray full of dishes into the sink.

"Your welcome, Sasuke-kun," She beamed, clearing the table, and washing her plates in the sink. She went outside again saying, "Sometimes I just come out here to listen, nothing more. It sort of sucks me into another dimension, one where I don't have to worry about anything. Or at least escape reality for a moment, just to feel like everything is alright, that nothing screwed with my life, to be happy…"

"Yeah, it gives you a piece of mind, like it's blocking out all the faults, problems, even time, just so you can enjoy the moment," Sasuke said, listening as well, leaning on the rail.

"You know I missed you both while I was away. I wanted to come back, but I also wanted to find out about my past. After figuring out, and defeating the bastards that made me who I am, I blocked out the past, and focused on the future, the future of the Sound. I wanted to come back as well, so I did, but then this mission occurred and I guess were back in Sound again. Both you and I, came here before, never making so much of a difference are both standing on the land that changed both of us so drastically, it's a bit scary.

I'm glad Team 7 is back. I missed Naruto like a brother and best friend, Kakashi like a father, and you."

"Sakura, thanks for breakfast, it was really good!" Naruto said as he spotted them walking into the house. He was in a black shirt and orange pajama pants.

"Your welcome, Naruto, tell everyone that I'll meet them at the grounds at 11, I have some business that needs to be taken care of with Kuminashi. Sasuke, make sure you get there extra early since I bet Ino would be putting on make-up for 5 hours if you didn't rush her. Make sure to lock the door after everyone is outside, and remember don't be late! Oh, don't let anything break in my house, or else things are going to look grim for you both…Sayonara Naruto, Sasuke!" she tossed Sasuke a set of keys with a keychain that said _Live forever my cherry blossom_, obviously a gift from her foster parents. Having Lucky land on her shoulder she speeded her way into the direction of the Hokage tower

(Sakura's POV)

I guess I'll have half of the paperwork on my hands until 10:30. "Kuminashi, where's the paperwork that I have to help you will?"

"There all in the corner," pointing to the 10 tall, very tall stacks of paper in the corner. Sakura noted that Kuminashi was rubbing her temples. "I'll go get some aspirin for you before I demolish the piles.

Two hours later, there were 10 Sakura's that littered the ground, grinding out information on the documents. At 10:20 she was done, it took 6 hours for her to finish all the documents.

"I'm done!" She said.

"I owe you big time Sakura, thanks," Kumi said with relieve.

"That's what friends are for, so I'll see you later. I have classes to teach," Sakura was eager to get outside.

"Right, better get on it, go on woman, run!" Kumi practically shouted at her.

"Thanks!" Sakura called.

(Normal POV)

Sakura was running outside, inhaling the clean air and massaging her hand from gripping the pen. After about 2 minutes, she disappeared to the grounds, already spotting the group.

"Hey guys! How was breakfast?" She called to them.

"AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS!" they all shouted.

"Incredible Sakura, how do you do it? And what were you doing at that office, you look horrible," Ino questioned.

"Let's say, 10 clones, 10 very, VERY, tall piles, all condensed into reading material, a cramped hand, and 6 hours," Sakura said while healing her hand. The faces she got O.o "Yeah, I know."


	16. First day of Lessons

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XVI

"Alright, I guess we can do this simple. Tenten can take everybody interested in weaponry to the targets, I take everyone who's capable of medical ninjustu, Kiba and Lee can take all enthusiastic shinobi to learn taijustu across the field. Sasuke and Naruto are good for Ninjustu practice with willing shinobi. Hinata I think you can put down genjustu, although I can come and give a few pointers as well, Neji, sorry for thinking so lowly of you but I need you to teach the little kids the basic hand signs, but if you can't handle it, I'll come over and take over, you just have to supervise my medical class then. Ino and Shikamaru, you guys can do a little bit of survival training.

You can go into the forest, here's a whistle in case of emergencies. Only Lucky can hear it so I'll be there in a flash. Oh, and No glaring, no putting on make-up at anytime except for breaks, Lee you cannot, and I repeat _**CANNOT**_ say the word 'youthful,' 'youthfulness,' or any form of the root 'youth,' not even synonyms, and Naruto, not one word about ramen, or ill have all the ramen making ingredients thrown out so you can't eat any for the next 3 months, got it?" Sakura said, she practically screamed at Naruto and Lee so they would get the point across. At 11, they sorted all the students, Sakura brought her students to a room and told them to try making a chakra shield. She left for two minutes, in those two minutes, she brought the genjustu users to the room the right of her, and the children to the room left of her so she could give pointers and help out.

The people that successfully made a chakra shield could stay, but those who couldn't make the shield show signs of being a Ninjustu user or a genjustu user. She told the students to either turn left to the classroom or go outside to find 2 men outside, one with blond hair the other with black hair. She continued to explain medical justus and let them practice. Neji finally chose that time to crash and supervise while she taught the kids each hand sign and had them work on it.

"Learning it all in one night isn't going to accomplish anything, just getting you injured, so take it all in at an easy pace," Sakura told both classrooms, before dismissing them early. She decided to check on Hinata, half of the students were in trances the rest were focused. "Alright, that's it for today, remember to practice at home, but don't overdo it alright? That isn't going to accomplish anything, just getting you injured, so eat, train and rest. You're all dismissed."

"Thank you Sakura-chan, at first they got a little out of hand, but they finally cooperated," Hinata explained.

"Ah… Come on, I have to dismiss everyone else," Sakura said, hurrying off with Hinata on her tail.

"Ok, you may all go home, remember to not overdo it on training, you want to become shinobi not some person that gets injured everyday. Train very little, if you don't have a lot of chakra rest and take a break, refuel. Tomorrow, meet here at the same time, you may change courses if you wish, that is all," Sakura had to yell because there were so many people.

"Alright, I want to go home as of right now, I practically killed myself, locked up in a room doing stupid 10,000 pieces of paper, then training shinobi," Sakura said tiredly, yawning.

"I got something that can wake you up…" Whit that Sasuke leaned down to kiss her.

"Mmm… thanks Sasuke-kun…I don't really think it worked though…." Sakura muttered.

"Oh, just hang on…. In 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…" Sasuke counted down.

"EEEEK! WHEN DID YOU GUYS GET TOGETHER, AH! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME SAKURA, AND LET ME DO YOUR HAIR, DRESS AND MAKE-UP EEEEEK!" Ino, Hinata and Tenten screamed while Sasuke smirked.

"I'll get you back for ruining my eardrums Sasuke-kun," Sakura smirked, "Oh wait, and you already did it for me!" Sasuke held a questioning gaze on her while she showed her fingers counting down to 0. When it landed…

"SASUKE! WHEN DID YOU GET SAKURA AS A GIRLFRIEND! OH MY GOSH, WE HAVE TO LIKE MAKE SURE YOU DON'T ACT LIKE A PERVERTED BASTARD WHEN YOU GO ON YOUR FIRST DATE, AND LIKE GET YOU A SUIT AND STUFF!" Sasuke paled when his friends started planning and questioning him.

"Told you so… First time you didn't think it through…" She smiled tiredly, at least she was awake.

After all the commotion had died down, they went back home, where some of them were talking about there lessons. Sakura had gotten up to make 10 Bento boxes earlier so people wouldn't starve. They all ate there boxes gratefully, when the discussion turned to how good Sakura was as a cook. Akamaru got some fried pork while Lucky got a few pieces of Sashimi. After lunch, Sakura disappeared again, and was gone for quite some time.

After a while Sasuke noticed, "Hey does anyone know where Sakura went?" The others noticed as well, until Akamaru caught sight of the little note lying on the couch. Sasuke noticed as well and went to go read it out loud. Getting up, he sauntered over to the part of the couch Sakura was recently sitting in and snatched up the note.

_Dear guys,_

_ Sorry for leaving in such short notice but I've been called to the Hokage Tower, probably to go fill out more paperwork. If your hungry and don't feel like cooking anything, there's a few snacks left out and a lot of instant ramen that Naruto can eat. They're all in the cupboard next to the fridge. I'll be back after dinner, you can either eat Torisashi tonight or go out and take out, just remember to lock the house. Well got to go, Bye! Have fun alright?_

_ Love,_

_ Sakura Haruno_

"Well I guess she left, being an advisor, a role model, and a kunoichi sure is making her run around like a crazy dog," Sasuke commented. The others nodded, "Why don't we try helping out a little, like maybe not the paperwork part or teaching but like taking care of her house and not having her cook all the time?" Ino asked. "You're a genius sometimes, Ino," Hinata answered. "You know it! Now come on, it's for my best friend after all," and with that they all headed out.

Later, in the evening, Sakura came back home. The house was nice and tidy, nothing was misplaced. Sighing, the women went upstairs to her bedroom, healing her hand. She had been reading papers and filling out corresponding lines like lightning all afternoon. It was finally when she reached her room that she noticed the silent atmosphere, peering into Sasuke's room, she saw the man leaning on a wall with a duster next to him, and apparently he'd been cleaning. She used her monster strength to lift him and tuck him into bed. She checked on all her other friends to find them all in relatively the same position. And one by one, she put their covers on them and tucked them into bed. Afterwards, she went to take a shower and go to bed.


	17. Emergency

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XVII

The next morning, Sasuke woke up; he spotted a tray filled with food and a card with the words 'Thank You' written on it by Sakura's neat handwriting. He smiled at that card. The same was placed on all of the trays, and they found a note similar to the last one on the kitchen counter.

"Gah! When is Sakura going to get a break from this busy schedule of hers?" Ino practically screeched.

"Troublesome woman…" Shikamaru muttered.

"Hn…" Sasuke retorted

"Teme…" Naruto stated.

_Dear Guys,_

_ Thanks for cleaning up for me, although I recommend you all not to sleep on cleaning utensils. I had to carry all of you to your bed! I'll meet you at the grounds at 10:30 again. Relax and don't break anything please!_

_ Love,_

_ Sakura Haruno_

"She's so busy, we hardly ever see her!" Tenten exclaimed. The others nodded.

"We have to do something!" Ino explained. Little did they know something is going to happen to them…

At 10:30 sharp, Sakura appeared at the training grounds, noticing the 9 other members of there group, she sauntered over, wobbling a bit.

"Ugh, I feel like crap… Naruto, be ready for some serious hand problems once your hokage, the paperwork can actually kill your dominate hand," Sakura spoke, "This is crazy on my part, I should've came back earlier."

"Yeah, you really do look like crap! How long were you in there for?" Kiba questioned.

"About 7 hours…" Sakura said sheepishly.

"7… 7 hours… locked up in a room doing only paperwork…." They all looked at her in disbelief, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, SAKURA! You don't just lock yourself in a room for 7 hours in the morning to finish paperwork!" They basically all shouted at her.

"Well I'm sorry, I can't help it if I have to help the Hokage out, it was my fault anyways that Kumi is Hokage anyway, remember I was suppose to become the hokage but I declined!" Sakura practically shouted at them.

"Whoa… wait a second… you were to become the Sound Hokage?" everyone but Sasuke and Naruto asked.

"Oh, right, I didn't tell you guys… Yeah I was offered to become Hokage once Orochimaru was revived by Kabuto and I killed him again… I guess I left that part out…" Sakura rubbed her head.

"You think? My best friend got the chance to become hokage, that's awesome!" Ino screamed.

"Alright, alright I get it… just go teach your classes now," Sakura said waving them all off.

Two hours later, Lucky had been taking a nap while Sakura was teaching. Suddenly his head snapped up, "The whistle was blown," he said.

"What! Ok, everyone, I want a half-hour break; you can go eat lunch or train, don't overdo it. I'll be back within the hour," Sakura stated, forcing her inner self to calm down. She made a few hand signs and slapped it on Lucky, making him grow. She opened up the window and Lucky went to hover next to it. Sakura jumped on and flew to the forest where Ino and Shikamaru were at.

During all this, the students were observing in awe, it all happened so quickly, they barely saw her. They all crowded next to the windows, looking at there sensei flying to the trees.

_God dammit Ino!_ Sakura rushed to the trees. Dropping down, she saw about 7 wind ninjas, three held Sasuke, Ino and Shikamaru in grips, all three both severely injured and all of them fainted except for Sasuke, while the rest were standing around.

"Ah, you're here Sakura-chan… we were wondering when you would come," the leader, obviously, stated, "Your friends here didn't put up much of a fight like we hoped." Sakura clenched her hands, "First of all, why are you here? Second, you don't know who you're talking about, and third, leave them out of this!" she hissed.

"Honestly Sakura-chan, you aren't much better than your ancestors,_ they,_ at least, always listened to what we wanted before deciding, although they _were_ always _weak_," the leader stated.

"Fine then, what do you want?" Sakura retorted with a glare.

"You to serve the hidden Wind," the leader spat back.

"Go back home, I'm not interested in your proposition," Sakura spoke, she had turned on her Raikugan, forming 6 clones behind each of the ninjas, nobody noticed.

"If you don't, we'll have to drag you by force," the leader said with a smirk.

"Try me," and with that, all the ninjas from the wind except the leader were dead.

Sakura rushed over to Ino and Shikamaru and caught them, setting them down before catching Sasuke and made him also sit down. Afterwards, she appeared behind the leader, kunai at his throat, "Listen to me right now, bastard. I don't ever take orders from you, nor will I ever join Wind. You don't mock my friends without paying the consequences, you don't mock my clan without paying the consequences, and you seriously don't order me around without paying the consequences. Go back to Wind, tell them, never to attack me or my friends again, if you do, I'll make sure that every shinobi in your village dies," Sakura spoke, her voice was like daggers, the words seeped out like poison and her eyes shown disgust and hatred.

Sasuke had witnessed it all, while trying to stop the bleeding from his body. After the speech, she forced the ninja to go back to Wind, with her message, ringing in his ears.

"Lucky, get down here!" Sakura barked out, you could tell she was still really pissed at the guy, "Get these two to the clearing, I'm going to perform **it** again. Come on Sasuke your with me," with that she released the curse mark and out grew her wings. She carried Sasuke while Lucky carried both Ino and Shikamaru. Once in the clearing, they were surrounded by people. Sakura had her wings shrink before going the further distance to Lucky.

"Everybody get back!" Sakura hissed. Anybody who knew Sakura, knew never to get her mad, and if you got her pissed, you would most likely die if you even disobeyed orders. So everybody had given a 20 meter diameter to the four shinobi. Sakura channeled her chakra and preformed a justu, the markings on the ground reached 15 feet, making a complete circle around the 4 people. At once, the injuries healed from three bodies, but the fourth had all of them, making Sakura lose blood. After the glowing had died down, there were three people that woke up and one person bleeding like crazy having a pool of blood around her.

There was silence, all of the people started crying, thinking that Sakura Haruno had died, saving a few people. Sasuke even screamed.

"Damn it! Sasuke shut the hell up!" Sakura mutter, shooting daggers at him, it was loud enough for them to hear. Then she made a clone and started healing herself, "why the hell would you guys assume I was dead! I've had worse you assholes!" she kept on swearing at them, nothing too big. Apparently she still hadn't cooled off from that leader from the Wind. After a few minutes, the clone disappeared and Sakura sat up, "Alright, lessons are over you can all go back home for the rest of the day, thank you!" then she lay down and closed her eyes, "Man I'm tired!"

"Well seeing what you did, you should be. It was a little reckless though, you could have died," Sasuke commented.

"Seeing as we're both alive and functional, I think I made a decent choice. Now come on, let's go home," Sakura shot back, "I'm dying for a shower."

"Tch… let's go then," Sasuke said while putting her on his back. Lucky was flying up above.

"Alright…" she muttered and she dozed off, once they got home, Sakura got off of Sasuke's back and proceeded to go take a shower. Once fully dressed, she went into the living room to see what they were talking about, and to get what everyone wanted to eat. After a few minutes, the choice was Zosui, and Hinata offered to help Sakura, which Sakura gratefully took. Now currently, everyone but Sakura was in the living room eating. Sakura had chosen to go to her room, she was very busy.

"Geez, she like barely gets out much, soon she's going to be a walking zombie…" Ino said.

"I heard that!" Sakura said walking in, "And I forgot to tell you guys, tomorrow Sunday!"


	18. Sunday Vacation

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XVIII

"Yeah, what about it?" everyone asked.

"Gosh, I really need to tell you guys the details on everything… Oto has a few religious ninjas, so usually; people don't go to work or school. Basically it's like a once a week holiday where you can do anything! This means no lessons that we have to teach tomorrow, duh!" Sakura explained.

"Oh… that's cool!" they all said.

"Also, why do you guys think I'm gonna turn into a walking zombie anytime soon? I mean, I'm not really walking around without an arm or something," Sakura asked.

"Oh, we just said that because you locked yourself in a room to do paperwork in the morning for 7 hours while the rest of us slept in. Don't you think that's a little extreme?" Tenten asked.

Sakura shrugged, "Eh, I guess I'm used to it, sometimes I would pull an all-nighter but I didn't want to wake you guys up so I force myself to sleep. I don't think you would appreciate the tapping of feet around the house at 1 in the morning. It's really alright for my schedule to be like this."

"It's not healthy, Sakura. You know it," Sasuke spoke.

"That's why I like Sundays so much, so tomorrow, we're going out and relaxing!" Sakura said.

"Yay! Wait… I would like to know what happened after I blew the whistle and was knocked out," Ino questioned, looking at Sakura.

"I'll explain it," Sasuke said, everyone stared at him. Not once had they heard Sasuke explain something so trivial, they all looked at him.

"After you and Shikamaru were both knock out, Sakura had appeared on Lucky. The bastard had wanted her to come and join the village hidden in the Wind, during there conversation, a bunch of clones came behind the rest of the group and they were all cut down. Sakura caught you both before you guys hit the ground and helped me into a sitting position. Afterwards, she was behind the guy and said something to him, I didn't hear, she made him go back to his village and then Lucky had carried Shikamaru and you to the clearing while Sakura had to fly while carrying me. Then she preformed a sort of jutsu and next thing I know I see Sakura healing her body and the rest of us brand new," Sasuke explained monotonously.

The group turned to Sakura, eyes filled with questions, probably about the holes Sasuke left. Sakura sighed and sat down.

"I told the dumbass to never mock me, my clan, and any of my friends. If they attacked any of you guys again, I am going to go kill all of the shinobi in the Wind village. Although he deserves to die, I let him be my messenger for now. The justu I preformed was one I had created myself. Anybody within the seal circle would have there wounds healed but the damage would be inflicted onto me," Sakura stated while everyone looked at her.

"So you took 3 times the injuries to save the three of us…" Shikamaru said mouth agape.

"Hn…" Sakura said, proceeding to the kitchen.

The group just starred at the white circle, sewn into Sakura's clothing having a new admiration in there eyes. Sakura had stood up for them, stood up and defended everything she cared about, all to one whole village.

The next morning, Sakura woke up a little later than usual; that was normal. Usually it would always be like that 6 days of being a workaholic and then a vacation afterwards, although it's only been three days. When she went downstairs she found everyone around the kitchen table, just thinking about random stuff.

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan!" Hinata said, noticing her first.

"Ohayo, everybody!" Sakura answered back, "I absolutely love Sundays! For once just no paperwork!" Everybody laughed at Sakura's kid-dish personality; it was if she was 10 again!

"Alright, so what are you ladies going to do today?" Sasuke asked.

"Shopping!" Ino, Hinata and Tenten all shouted.

"I might go shopping then to the training grounds, I don't think I fought with you and Naruto yet have I? Then I think I might go take care of the garden," Sakura answered, you could see the glint in her eye when she thought about fighting with Naruto and Sasuke.

"Yeah! Sakura-chan hasn't fought with me yet! That should be really fun!" Naruto said.

"Tch… Dobe…" Sasuke muttered, but you could tell Sasuke thinking it over.

"Teme!" He shouted back.

"Hn…" Sasuke retorted.


	19. Sasuke asks Sakura Something

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XIX

"Alright, I'm going to go get dressed, be back in 5," Sakura left, but nobody really noticed, only the ice-hearted raven-haired man.

At once, he got up and went to his room also. After 5 minutes, he opened the door and walked out, unfortunately, so did Sakura and they accidently bump each other, making them both fall.

"Gomen, Sasuke-kun," Sakura exclaimed, rubbing the bump forming on her head, quick as a flash she released a burst of chakra to heal it. Walking over to Sasuke, she put her hand on his head, releasing another burst of chakra, immediately the throbbing in Sasuke's head diminished.

"Hey, Sakura? I was wondering if you would like to go out sometime tonight…." Sasuke asked with a slight blush crept onto his face.

"Sure, Sasuke-kun! How's 6 pm?" Sakura answered.

"Fine, alright, let's go downstairs before the others start wondering where we are…" Sasuke said, relieved that Sakura didn't turn him down.

"Come on then! I'd hate to spend another minute cooped up in my house," Sakura yelled, running down the stairs and out the door. _She's a hyper one, but that's what I like about her sometimes._ Sasuke walked the path Sakura had run a few seconds ago, slowly seeping into his thoughts… He didn't even notice where he was going. After awhile, he noticed he was lost. There were houses everywhere, and a few feet to his right were Ryou, looking at a scroll, it was one about fireball techniques.

"Hey! You know Sakura right?" Sasuke asked, walking up to him.

"Who? You mean Sakura-sama, of course I know her! We befriended each other when she was in the hospital a few years back. I would train with her sometimes," Ryou answered, quickly putting his scroll away.

"That's cool; um… you wouldn't possibly know where I am would you?" Sasuke asked uneasily.

"Oh, this is my neighborhood; I'm guessing you're lost!" Ryou said, chuckling.

"Yeah, so could you tell me where Sakura's training grounds are?" Sasuke asked sheepishly.

"No problem, come on!" Ryou said then they both ran off.

"There you are Sasuke! We've been waiting for a half-hour now!" Sakura screamed at him, gesturing to the sleeping Naruto.

"Gomen, I got lost and had Ryou tell me where I was," Sasuke explained.

"Oh… Ohayo, Ryou!" Sakura called out cheerfully to her friend.

"Ohayo, Sakura-sama! I have to go now, see you later!" He called back.

Facing Sasuke, "Remind me to make a map for you guys. Now come on, I think Kakashi is rubbing off on you," She said to him with a giggle.

"I will never become a pervert!" Sasuke exclaimed. **You already became one.**_ Who are you?_** Your inner self and I see that you have been dreaming of being with Sakura-chan for a long time buddy. **_LIES! I would never, now shut up!_ **Fine, be like that. **

"I don't know Sasuke, anything could happen, now help me wake up Naruto before I kill him," Sakura retorted.

"AHH! Ok, ok I'm up!" Naruto screamed once they poured water on him.

"Good now we can battle, don't go easy," Sakura said viciously, "Hey, Lucky, go hunt for a vole or something, I'm going to be having some fun." She proceeded to put on her gloves, scrolls, and weaponry on all parts of her body. Once she was done, her body took the same physical form but the two men knew better.

"Arigatou!" The eagle said from afar.

"Alright, let's get this battle started," Sakura said, noticing that Sasuke had activating his Sharingan. _Won't work on me this time Sasuke! _She activated her Raikugan, noting that Sasuke's eye's had narrowed. Attacking them both, Sasuke had dodged while Naruto reached to slow, receiving the blow fully. Fortunately, he quickly recovered, making hand signs creating clones, and Sakura did the same thing with the fractured light. The clones engaged while Sasuke was fighting with the real Sakura.

"Got to be faster than that, Sasuke-kun." Sakura disappeared, only to reappear behind him, blocking a few chakra points and paralyzing him, forcing him to crash into the earth. Facing Naruto, she saw him make the Rasengan; she quickly powered her chakra to her hand, Shannaro, the attack that utilizes chakra into a sphere causing the most effective damage possible to the area attacked. So if Sakura was to attack and touch the ribcage area, the ribs would break and the lungs would slow the breathing forcing Naruto to slow down his attacks and defenses. And that's exactly what she did, but before Naruto could hit her, she disappears behind him and slapped her palm onto his back. Naruto was on the ground, gasping from the pain of his ribs being broken, while Sasuke and Sakura face off.

Sakura had sparred with him when she made a clone behind Sasuke. After using Chidori Nagashi, and successfully stabbing Sakura in the shoulder, the clone came up and again slapped her palm against his back. Breaking his bones as well. Surveying the scene before her, she quickly went over to Naruto and healed his bones, then went to Sasuke.

"That was totally awesome Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted when he was able to speak and breathe properly.

"Truly quite amazing," Sasuke also commented.

"Hn…" Sakura 'grunted.'

They all went back home where Kiba, Lee, Neji, Tenten, Shikamaru, Ino, and Hinata were all talking.

"Alright, spill… who won?" Kiba questioned when he noticed the door open.

"Sakura-chan…" Naruto sadly mumbled.

"Sakura…" Sasuke told them, more loudly than Naruto.

All mouths dropped to the ground.


	20. Bad News

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XX

"S-S-Sakura defeated-d-d both N-Naruto-kun and Sasuke-s-s-san at t-the same t-t-time?" Hinata shuddered. Sakura nodded, clutching the shoulder Sasuke had stabbed with his katana, "Sakura! Dammit, heal that shoulder wound of yours!" Neji shouted; a look of worry crossed his face. Sakura shook her head, "It already has an infection, Hinata? Can you apply the medicine for me?" "Sure, Sakura-san," Hinata answered, walking over to the medicine cabinet and applying a fair amount onto the wound, Sakura had to take off her jacket for her to apply the disinfectant.

Naruto was busy explaining what happened on the training grounds while everyone was listening intently.

At 5:30, Sakura headed to her bedroom to get changed, she didn't tell anybody that she was going out with Sasuke yet, and he didn't either. So at 6 o'clock, they both were standing at the doorway, Sakura in a white dress with cherry blossoms decorating the bottom right corner, and Sasuke in a black and white tux.

"Where are you guys going, dressed so formal?" Ino questioned, with a suspicious look on her face.

Sakura sucked in a breath, "Out on a date," she managed to squeak out.

"OH MY GOD! I need to take a picture! Ah! Sakura is finally going on a date, Shikamaru, where'd you put the camera…" Ino screamed. Sasuke and Sakura left before she could take any pictures, or humiliate them in any way. They knew they were going to be interrogated by there friends later that night.

"So why the sudden urge to ask me out on a date, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.

"Hn… because you still owe me a few questions and we still haven't gone on a date yet…" Sasuke answered with a smirk.

"Alright, so I guessing I'm choosing dinner and you're going to be interrogating me on everything," Sakura asked.

"Hm… basically, yeah," Sasuke responded.

"Alright, come on then…" Sakura said, dragging Sasuke to a restaurant, very enthusiastically, "Now, what's your first question?"

"Hn… What Kekkei Genkai do you have, I've never seen it before?"

"Tch… you would ask that, my Kekkei Genkai is known as the Raikugan. It allows me to make clones that bleed, so the opponent will have a harder time defeating them, I make them out of fractured light so I don't need to use chakra. I can also change the shape of any object, and bend anything to my will. I can also infiltrate minds, and command people to do as I wish. Above all that, I can spot the chakra points, just like the Byakugan and the Sharingan," Sakura explained dully, "I had received mine when I put even the littlest things in front of me, and act of selflessness if you will. So after I had save Lucky, I released that I had a Kekkei Genkai, just because I had saved an animal, which was soon my best friend, without a second thought.

"That's quite a useful bloodlimit. Anyways, what's your family history?" Sasuke asked, quite interested in all the information Sakura gained.

Sakura tensed, and then sighed. "I guess you deserve to know. I was two at the time, my name was Ibaraki Hoshiko, and I was going to lead my clan when I was older. Before, someone killed my clan, his name was Akasuna no Sasori, and he was my cousin. Killing the clan was what he had to do to join the Akatsuki, so he did it one night, although he didn't kill me. Being two, I wouldn't know anything, and he didn't want to kill me, I was, for some strange reason, his favorite cousin. So when I was asleep, he carried me to Konoha, placing me at the gate along with a card that had the words Ibaraki no Hoshiko and my birthday, March 28th. I guess he really cared about me in the end, and before I realized it, I already killed the man that shaped my life. Once I found out, I wanted to crush every Akatsuki member, so I trained, and in the end, here we are, no members left.

The Q and A continued for a while, until they decided to head home. What greeted them was a bunch of friends badgering them with questions, the interrogation had begun.

"Where'd he/she take you, what did you guys talk about, did he/she hurt you, will you let us do your hair and clothing next time?...etc." Those were the kinds of questions directed to both Sasuke and Sakura. After a while, the commotion died down and they all headed to bed. Before, sleeping both Sasuke and Sakura had shared a make-out session in there pajamas.

"Goodnight, Sasuke-kun," Sakura whispered.

"Goodnight, Sakura-**chan**," Sasuke whispered back, making the –chan more pronounced.

In the morning, Sakura proceeded to make everybody breakfast, making a bit more in case anyone was hungry. Delivering the trays, she left the extra on a plate for some still hungry person to consume, quickly getting her gear, she headed to the tower for her daily pile of paperwork she had to complete.

Over the course of the next two months, things stayed relatively the same. Sasuke and Sakura would always have a date on Sunday while the students progressed rapidly through there studies. Until one day, a ninja had woken Sakura at 12 o'clock, "What is it?" she snapped, she wasn't a very morning person.

"The hokage wishes to speak with you," the ninja spoke then disappeared. There was only one reason a ninja would wake Sakura in the middle of the night, and that reason would always be a bad one. Rushing around silently, she quickly made the usually amount of breakfast, but on Sasuke's tray was a note.

_ Sasuke,_

_ I'll be gone for part of the morning, something bad has come up. Don't worry about me, your in charge._

_ -Sakura Haruno_

After that, she left.

"Kuminashi, what the hell is wrong?" Sakura screamed at the Hokage, only she could anyways.

"Grass ninja are heading is way, about 500 of them. I don't know what to do!" Kumi stated, panic in her voice.

"HN… this is a form of war, alright, get me a pen and a scroll, Lucky you're doing some fast flying today," Sakura stated, forcing her voice to be calm, "We're gonna need some help, and we can hold out for three days." Once Lucky had flown at a speed, as fast as a plane, she went back home to tell her friends of the bad new.

"Guys, I have some bad news. Grass ninjas are going to be attacking Otogakure, which means its war. I've send help for back-up from Konoha, which means I guess everyone is going to be fighting for the next three days," Sakura said. The others first had stunned faces, but slowly it turned into determination.


	21. War with Grass and the News

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XXI

"How many?" Kiba growled out.

"500… Looks like they want to concur Sound," Sakura simply stated.

"Bastards," Naruto whispered.

"I'm going, I have too, bye guys, I'm gonna go kick a few people's asses," Sakura called. Everyone followed, they all needed to kick some hardcore asses, nothing's been too hard for a while in there opinions.

"Alright, I'll give you a heads up on what Grass can do… I've also been there before. Grass is specialized mostly in hiding, which means there genjustu is very strong. So be prepared to get caught in one at all times. There weak in fire and air justus but dispel attacks by using earth and water. For some reason the Hokage is obsessed with power, so he wants to concur lands quickly. That's the main purpose for this one, I suppose," Sakura spoke quickly, not wasting a second, "There speed is slow compared to Konoha ninja, so feel free to use the kunai I gave you guys," She smirked, looking back, "They didn't think I would accomplish such a deadly weapon, oh how wrong they are. Now come on, I want to go kick some ninja butt."

The others followed, going over the strengths and weaknesses of grass ninja.

During the next three days, the whole village battled hard, Sound only received 20 deaths, while Grass had received about 374 deaths. The one thing that shocked the group was when Sakura had saved a shinobi named Hitomi.

_(Flashback)_

_Sakura was looking at her surroundings; just finishing off about 7 ninjas, suddenly she heard a scream and a bark. Sprinting, she found the source of the scream; it was a lady of her age named Hitomi. She was about to be killed by two ninjas when Sakura had invaded. Forming a bow and a quiver of arrows out of fragmented light, she notched two arrows, diving in front of Hitomi and killing both ninjas. Sakura than carried Hitomi and her dog, Emi to Kiba._

"_Kiba! Get Hitomi to safety have Emi treated as well!" Sakura shouted to him._

"_Alright! Come on, Akamaru keep Emi safe! What's your name?" Kiba asked Hitomi._

"_Inuzuka Hitomi, I was saved by Sakura-sama about 3 years ago, I had lived with a man who used me as a weapon for money. She had killed that man and brought me here, I've been here ever since," Hitomi answered._

"_Oh really? You must be related to me than, I'm Inuzuka Kiba, nice to meet you. I bet my family knows who your parents are," Kiba answered, "I'll take you to Konoha sometime after the war." _

"_Arigatou, Kiba-kun," Hitomi answered._

"_Your welcome, Hitomi-chan," Kiba answered back, reaching the hospital._

_(End of Flashback)_

The battle was going bad for Sound, until Sakura's extensive planning finally made a result. Naruto had a sprained ankle while Sakura was healing it; a flash of silver came above them, when the blur stopped, they saw it was there ex-sensei.

"Kakashi?" Naruto screamed.

"Doi! Ugh, haven't you noticed that Lucky hasn't been around for three days!" Sakura practically beat him to death.

"Hehe… Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto said, rubbing his head.

"Never mind that now, I have to go meet up with Tsunade-sama," Sakura spoke, taking off. Naruto got up and was fighting along with Kakashi.

Once Sakura got to Sound, she entered, seeking a familiar blond-haired figure. Along the way she healed Sasuke's shoulder wound and were both looking for Leaf's Hokage.

"There she is!" Sasuke called to Sakura.

"Alright, come on!" Sakura called back.

In about 5 minutes, Tsunade, Kumi, Sasuke and Sakura were all in the Hokage's office, Lucky, of course was on Sakura's shoulder.

"I see you got my letter," Sakura stated.

"Well… I didn't really have a choice; see it was the council's decision and all…" Tsunade regarded.

"Hm… what do you mean by that?" Sakura asked, quite confused. Even Sasuke had a questioning gaze on Konoha's Hokage.

"As my apprentice and best medic-ninja out there, it would be a great loss if you died. Also the elders have agreed that… Sakura, you're announced as the next Hokage…" Tsunade finished, raising her head to look at Sakura's shocked expression.

"WHAT? How the hell can I become Hokage! I've only came back to Konoha for a day and left 5 years ago! Dammit, Shishou, is that even possible? I mean this was Naruto's dream, it wouldn't feel right" Sakura started cussing and shouting. Sasuke just stood there, apparently, unaware that a.) His girlfriend was to become hokage, and b.) Sakura was swearing her head off.

"Sakura! I already informed Naruto 5 years ago that it was you of him, so he sort of knows! And the reason behind this announcement is because you're a great ninja, you've been to every village, peacefully without dying or under war standards, you've already managed a treaty with sound, and you've defeated most of the Akatsuki members, the most powerful, corrupted group that was ever forming on this planet!" Tsunade shouted at her apprentice, "You've even surpassed me, young lady." Both Sasuke and Sakura just stood there agape starting to taking in the information that their Hokage just told them.

"Alright fine, I'll become Hokage as long as this war is over and done with," Sakura answered.

"Good job, Sakura, you got two chances to become Hokage!" Lucky piped up.

"Ugh, please don't remind me, it just makes me think about all the piles of paperwork I'll have to finish when I get home. And then I realize that this is my last mission, Hokages can't leave there villages unless it's a political meeting," Sakura groaned, aware of Tsunade's lack of patience towards paperwork.

"You've managed Sound's paperwork, why can't you do Leaf's?"

"Because Leaf's it 10 times worse that Sound's if you haven't noticed," Sakura yelled exasperated.

"Good point," Lucky said. Tsunade blushed while Sasuke comprehended everything, Kumi sat there listening.

"Alright back to the point! How many Leaf ninja did you bring?" Sakura asked, regarding Tsunade.


	22. Proposal

Sasusaku – In his Footsteps XXII

"About 100 ninjas, which means we're winning this war!" Tsunade answered.

"Hell yeah!" Sakura shouted, running out the door with renewed strength. Sasuke followed suit. After they reached the battle area, the Grass was in full retreat, "Don't let them out of your sight, and were ending this here!" Sakura commanded. All leaf ninjas followed orders, in less that 5 hours, all remaining Grass ninjas were killed, Sakura was bleeding heavily but didn't care, she rushed over to each of her teammates closing there wounds as best as she could. Only Sasuke was left, he shook his head though, "Heal your wounds first, Rokudaime," Sasuke spoke.

Sakura nodded and proceeded to heal both of their wounds. "Please don't call me that when were along, it doesn't feel right," Sakura plead.

"Hn… Sure," Sasuke answered with a smile, (note: NOT A SMIRK!) "Hey Sakura?"

"Hm… Something wrong?" Sakura asked as a worried look was immediately plastered to her face.

"Hn… Yeah, your last name isn't Uchiha…" Sasuke said standing up, and then bent down, pulling out a black velvet box opening it to find a silver ring with a diamond surrounded by emeralds.

"Haruno no Sakura, will you marry me?" Sasuke whispered facing Sakura.

"Uh….YES!" Sakura hesitated then practically screamed her head off, "But you know that this probably wasn't the best time for a romantic scene you know?" she commented, putting on the ring on her left hand. Sasuke chuckled, "I know, I was going to ask you on Sunday but then the war started, so that left that option out. So I decided to ask you now," Sasuke then kissed Sakura's forehead.

"Hn… come on, there's a lot to clean up, and a lot of things that we have to do until we go back. We're still on a mission remember, Sasuke-kun?"

"Yeah, let's go." Sasuke stated, picking Sakura up, bridal style.

"Yeah," Sakura said, laughing. Once they all got into Sakura house there eyebrows were raised, "What's going on with you two lovebirds?" Ino asked suspiciously.

"I'm guessing you guys forgot to tell us something, am I right Sasuke, Sakura?" team 7's ex-sensei spoke; his face showed that he was smiling.

"Um… yeah!" Sakura quietly spoke.

"Well come on spit it out, you can't wait forever can you?" Tsunade told her.

"Alright fine! Geez, Sasuke proposed to me and I said yes, happy?" Sakura explained very quickly, face red. As can be expected, all the women in a 5 feet radius screamed while the men were congratulating Sasuke.

"When is the wedding? Oh, can we plan it out? Can we do your dress/tux? Make-up? Etc," the group yelled at the soon-to-be married couple.

"Um…" Sakura and Sasuke froze.

"Ok then… I will meet all of you guys back at Konoha in a month, see you later!" Tsunade said quickly.

"Alright, bye guys," Kakashi waved, pulled out his book and disappeared.

"Gomen for everything Lady Tsunade!" Sakura called to her shishou.

"No problem, don't forget what I told you alright? You can tell the others as well," Tsunade yelled back.

"Ok…" Sakura shouted, sounding scared, "Um… guys? I have something to tell you…"

"Alright, let's all sit down first, I'm dead tired," Naruto said.

"Um… Ok…" Sakura said, uneasily, "Um… guys? Yeah, Shishou told me a couple of hours ago… I'm supposed to become the Rokudaime after her… She said it was because politically I got along with every Hokage in there villages, is a powerful medical ninja, already created a treaty with Sound, and defeated a number of Akatsuki members…. And um… yeah that's about it…" Sakura said, not really liking the attention she was getting. Ino reacted first, pouncing on Sakura she pinned her to the ground, "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU'RE BECOMING THE NEXT HOKAGE? AND THAT YOU KILLED MOST OF THE AKATSUKI MEMBERS?"

"Ino, calm down, I'm not physically ready to get beat by you right now, I didn't really heal all of my wounds you know," Sakura said trying to breathe. Suddenly the blonde women was yanked from the ground by two strong arms, Shikamaru had pulled Ino up and was currently holding her by the waist so she wouldn't kill anyone on accident. Strong arms had lifted the poor pink-haired kunoichi as well, "Thanks, Sasuke-kun," She managed to choke out.

"Hey Naruto, are you doing alright with the news?" Sakura asked, looking at her blonde teammate, still clutching her mid-section.

The blonde slowly faced his friend, no tears shown and he was looking like his happy old self again, "Awesome Sakura-chan! It doesn't matter if I did make hokage; I would just have a damaged hand that's all. I would much rather pick ANBU captain than anything else, you can't leave in you reach Hokage."

"Oh, thanks for making me feel depressed, I can only imagine the workload that Tsunade is going to give to me when I get home," Sakura said, laughing. The others had laughed as well; it was good that no harm was done emotionally when the news was said.

The next month was busy with repairs; Sakura still had a lot of work each day, and for some reason, the amount of paperwork had tripled, She had to create a lot more clones to get it all done in time. After everyday, she would just collapse, sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the couches and sometimes on her bed, too lazy to go take a shower. Sometimes, she would just crash and someone would have to catch her before she hit her head, usually it was Sasuke. She would still get up to make breakfast everyday and Hinata and Tenten both helped out during lunch. Ino would sometimes help Sakura with dinner.

Once they had had to go back, Otogakure was looking better than before, the students they trained were either Jounins or Chunins, they would pass done there knowledge to future generations. The day the 10 of them left, all the villagers had surrounded them, giving them there thanks. All of the children had dog piled Sakura since they loved her so much. Ryou had to help her out of the pile. Hitomi would join them; she wanted dearly to find out about her parents, so she decided to go to Konoha.

The elders had decided to give the 10 of them each a sound headband. Sakura's was the only pink one while the rest had the traditional navy blue cloth. They each either tied the headband to there waist or head, depending on where their original headband was.

After the two days, necessary to travel Konoha we reached the gates, everyone was there. The first people that reached was Lee and Gai-sensei. And this was there introduction:

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

They hugged and showed off there shiny teeth, blinding half of the village because it was so bright!

The people in the front of the crowd was the elders, Tsunade, the Sabaku siblings, Shizune, Kakashi, Gai (of course), Kurenai, Iruka, Asuma, and all the other Jounins. After them came everyone there age, and then all the villagers. All Sakura's friends pounced on her, leaving her in another dog pile while Sasuke helped her up. Temari came over and hugged Sakura, "Congradulations, Saks, you're going to be Rokudaime!"

"Yeah, yeah, bring on the paperwork," Sakura commented, the whole village laughed.

"Right, so why we all are gathered here today?" she questioned facing Tsunade.

"To welcome you back home! You really didn't give us warning the first time you came back you know," Tsunade answered.

"Yeah I know," Sakura laughed.


	23. Epilogue

Sasusaku – In his footsteps XXIII Epilogue

After the party, most of the people left to go home. Tsunade had enthusiastically moved all of Sakura's stuff into Sasuke's home, so everything in Sakura's room was covered pink except for the walls. Her Hokage-in-training training session was going to start tomorrow, so the pink kunoichi went straight to bed, more like collapsed on her bed, everything was back to normal.

5 months later, Sakura was married to Sasuke, everyone in the village attended the young kunoichi's wedding. Kiba had helped Hitomi figure out who her parents, apparently, someone had attacked them and Emi had run to safety with Hitomi when she was a baby. Both of her parents were alive and was so happy to see Hitomi alive, Kiba and Hitomi had become so close that they became a couple. Naruto and Hinata were finally allowed to marry by Hiashi-sama, and Neji and Tenten had gotten together. Neji's proposal happened one night at a fancy restaurant, how classic.

A year later, Sakura was named Rokudaime, Tsunade had resigned and helped out, same with Shizune. Sasuke would go to the office, he was usually there to join his wife with the extensive paperwork she had. They had been married for three years when Sakura announced that she was pregnant, turns out that it was twins, both carried the Sharingan and Raikugan. There names were Daisuke and Shina, both were true geniuses, courtesy of both Sakura and Sasuke. They passed every exam with flying colors and were put on the same team with Sasuke and Minato (Naruto and Hinata's son). Shina became Sakura's apprentice and became Slug Sannin, Daisuke, became Sasuke's apprentice and became Snake Sannin, and Minato became Naruto's apprentice and became Toad Sannin.

During missions, they were always acting like the former team 7. They always completed missions successfully, and everyone progressed quickly. No trouble arouse, thankfully, Sakura ran the Leaf wisely and could always figure out a compromise or solution in a moments notice. Naruto became the top ANBU captain and was running everything smoothly, soon after Sakura had another baby, so at 14 years old, both Shina and Daisuke had a baby brother, named Hideyoshi. They all grew up to pass down the Raikugan and Sharingan. Daisuke was the 7th hokage and he ruled the land peacefully with his sister as an advisor. Both Sakura and Sasuke had died peacefully, and there graves stood next to those of Uchiha Fugaku and Uchiha Mikoto. Both the Sound and the Leaf attended the funeral, to the two people that changed the way things were between Leaf and Sound. That is there end, bringing to the epic conclusion of this story: **In His Footsteps**

The End


End file.
